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Simply to thy cross I cling. 



THE 



WAY MADE PLAIN. 



BY TH^ 

Kev. JAMES H. BEOOKES, D.D., 

Author of " How to be Saved," etc. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 
1122 Chestnut Stkeet. 



New York : No. 8 and 10 Eible House, Astor Place. 



,isii,' 



,^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress^ in the year 1871, hy the 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washingtmi. 



Westcott & Thomson, Henry B. Ashmead, 

Stereotypers, Philada. Printer, Philada. 



do 

CO 

21 PREFACE, 



Those who carefully read the first thirteen 
verses of the tenth chapter of Romans cannot 
fail to perceive the logical order and marvellous 
clearness with which the Holy Ghost there sets 
forth the Way of Life. It is the aim of this 
little book to follow that order, and in some 
feeble measure to reflect that clearness. Hence 
the Scriptures are closely followed at every 
step of the argument, because they alone can 
guide our feet in the paths of peace. 

Frequently has the author, when dealing 
with inquiring souls, undertaken a simple ex- 
position of this instructive and interesting pas- 
sage, and often has the Lord been pleased to 



4 PREFACE. 

own it in imparting light to the darkened un- 
derstanding and comfort to the troubled heart 
of the anxious sinner. To his blessing and 
favour it is now commended with the earnest 
prayer that, as sent forth by the American 
Sunday-school Union, it may be more greatly 
ow^ned in His service, to the glory of Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost for ever. 
Saint Louis, June, 1871. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. PAGE 

I. Man's Need of Salvation 7 

11. Man's Need of Salvation. 27 

III. Man's Sincerity Cannot Save Him 43 

IV. Man's Sincerity Cannot Save Him 62 

V. Man's EiGHTEOUSNESS Can^not Save Him. . . 85 

VI. Man's Righteousness Cannot Save Him. . . 98 

VII. Christ the Saviour of the Believer 123 

VIH. Christ the Saviour of the Believer. . , ^ . 141 

IX. No Hope for the Sinner in the Law 166 

X. No Hope for the Sinner in the Law. 186 

XI. Nothing between the Sinner and the 

Saviour 214 

XII. Nothing between the Sinner and the 

Saviour 234 

Xin. Belief and Confession 265 

XIV. Belief and Confession 287 

1* 5 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAP. PAGE 

XV. The Believer's Safety 317 

XVI. The Believer's Safety 339 

XVII. The Believer Calling on the Lord. ... 373 

XVni. The Believer Calling on the Lord 398 

XIX. Assurance of Faith 427 

XX. Assurance of Faith 452 



THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 



CHAPTER I. 

MAN'S NEED OF SALVATION. 

" Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel 
is, that they might be saved."— Romans x. 1. 







I N the great work of delivering lost 
men from the ruin in which they 
^o ^^^ involved, the Holy Ghost pro- 
*& duces the conviction that they need 
to be saved. Without this conviction 
"they are like the deaf adder that stop- 
peth her ear ; which will not hearken to 
the voice of charmers, charming never so 
wisely."-^ However alarming their state 
as "strangers from the covenants of prom- 
ise, having no hope, and without God in 
the world," ^ and however appalling their 

1 Ps. Iviii. 4, 5. 2 Eph. ii. 12. 

7 



8 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

peril as exposed to the righteous inflic- 
tion of " indignation and wrath, tribula- 
tion and anguish, upon every soul of man 
that doeth evil/'^ they neither understand 
their condition nor perceive their danger 
until made to feel that they are sinners. 

There are multitudes of our race of 
whom it can be truthfully said that 
"they are the enemies of the cross of 
Christ : whose end is destruction, whose 
God is their belly, and whose glory is in 
their shame, who mind earthly things;"^ 
and yet they go their downward way 
profoundly indifferent to their guilt and 
their doom. They eat and drink, they 
awake and sleep, they give their thoughts 
and time entirely to the pursuits of the 
world, and run their round of business or 
of pleasure, without one correct conception 
of the Being who made them, and with- 
out one spark of spiritual life. 

Their ignorance of their real character 
and their insensibility to their eternal in- 

1 Rom. ii. 8, 9. ^ pj^jj jjj i^^ 19 



MAN^S NEED OF SALVATION. 9 

terests furnish conclusive evidence both 
of their sinfulness and of their deplorable 
unconsciousness of sin. Hence the first 
practical step towards their recovery is 
taken when the Divine Sj^irit, whose 
office it is to " reprove [or rather, to con- 
vince] the world of sin, and of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment,"^ leads them to 
see that they are undone, and need an 
almighty Arm to rescue them from im- 
pending destruction. 

The agency He employs in teaching 
them this essential and fundamental truth 
is the revealed word of God, or the Sa- 
cred Scriptures, whether communicated 
in the pulpit or through the press ; 
whether made known in public instruc- 
tion or in private study ; whether carried 
to the heart by a popular address or by a 
personal appeal. '' By the word of the 
LORD were the heavens made,"^ and in 
the new creation "the word of God is 
quick, and powerful, and sharper than 

' John xvi. 8. ^ Ps. xxxiii. 6. 



10 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

any two-edged sword, piercing even to 
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, 
and of the joints and marrow, and is a 
discerner of the thoughts and intents of 
the heart :"^ ^^ Faith cometh by hearing, 
and hearing by the word of God."^ 

If, therefore, we would inquire whether 
man, as such, and as born into the world, 
is in urgent need of salvation, we must 
surely consult the testimony of the " word 
of God, which liveth and abideth for 
ever."^ Kemember, it is the word of 
God, and He is too wise to err, too holy 
to tell a lie, too just to bring false accusa- 
tions against His creatures, and too kind 
to heap upon them undeserved reproaches. 
Let those who claim that they are entitled 
to His favour on the ground of their own 
merits make good their claim, and most 
gladly will He recognize it and bestow 
upon them the full reward of their vir- 
tue. He is not an unfeeling tyrant re- 
joicing in the exercise of an unrestrained 

1 Heb. iv. 12. 2 i^oyn. x. 17. ^ 1 Peter i. 23. 



MAN^S NEED OF SALVATION. 11 

power to crush and kill, nor is He an 
unmerciful Judge eagerly inclining to in- 
flict upon the terrified delinquent the ex- 
tremest rigours of the law without regard 
to the palliating circumstances under 
which the offence was committed. Not 
only His name, but His very nature, is 
"Love;"^ and it is certain that His tes- 
timony concerning man, and His sentence 
in view of that testimony, are in perfect 
harmony with His boundless benevolence 
and His inexhaustible patience. 

But every one must at once see the 
utter absurdity of accepting as true the 
revelation which He has made of His at- 
tributes in the Bible, and of rejecting as 
false the revelation which He has made 
in the same Bible of ourselves. Either 
all is true or all is false, or, at best, there 
is no criterion to distinguish the true 
from the false, except the odd fancies and 
foolish whims of the reader. If one is 
at liberty to set aside as incredible what 

1 1 John iv. 8. 



12 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the Scriptures affirm of man's characteris- 
tics, another is at equal liberty to treat with 
contempt what they declare of God's per- 
fections ; and thus are we hurled back 
into the darkness of nature, or left to 
grope our way to the unknown future by 
the feeble glimmerings of reason. 

It must be obvious, after a moment's re- 
flection, that consistency, logic, and sound 
sense require us to place the teachings 
of the Bible on a common footing with 
respect to their authority, authenticity, 
and genuineness. Especially is our faith 
demanded in a doctrine which pervades 
the whole book from first to last, and 
which is interwoven in all the narratives, 
in all the Psalms, in all the prophecies, 
in all the parables, in all the sermons, and 
in all the epistles, that are contained in 
the inspired records. If, then, it can be 
shown that a uniform testimony is borne 
from Genesis to Revelation touching 
man's pressing need of salvation, we are 
compelled to conclude that by nature we 



man's need of salvation. 13 

are fallen, lost, and mined ; or, as the 
only alternative, we are forced to deny 
that God has spoken the trnth in His 
blessed Word. 

My argument here is not designed for 
the sceptic who can never be convinced 
of his fatal error by human wisdom, but 
for the reader whose ear has been opened 
to hear the ^^ still small voice" ^ breathing 
through the Book of books, and whose 
head is reverently bowed in the presence 
of its recognized divinity. Taking it for 
granted that those for whom these pages 
are intended are, through infinite grace, 
past the dreary region of infidelity, and 
that they are now turning to the " lively 
oracles"^ with the docility of the child 
Samuel, who said, " Speak, Loed ; for thy 
servant heareth,"^ I desire to sum up 
briefly the solemn testimony which God 
gives of man's condition apart from re- 
deeming love, and, therefore, of man's 
unspeakable need of salvation. 

1 1 Kings xix. 12. ^ Acts vii. 38. "^ 1 Sam. iii. 9. 



14 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

I. We assuredly learn from the lan- 
guage which I have placed at the be- 
ginning of this chapter that the Jews as 
a people, although they were highly fa- 
voured above all the nations of the earth, 
were not delivered from the curse and 
dominion of sin ; for the apostle writes, 
" Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer 
to God for Israel is, that they might be 
saved." This earnest expression of con- 
cern for his countrymen would of course 
be meaningless or self-contradictory if 
they were not under the condemnation 
of God's broken law; and hence the 
inspired writer, "moved by the Holy 
Ghost," ^ asserts that they were still un- 
saved. The unavoidable inference which 
we thus gather from his words will be 
confirmed, and the argument to prove 
man's need of salvation will be strength- 
ened, if we glance at other statements 
relative to the condition of the Jewish 
nation. In the ninth chapter of the 

1 2 Peter i. 21. 



man's need of salvation. 15 

Epistle to the Romans, for example, the 
same insj^ired writer exclaims with the 
greatest emotion, " I say the truth in 
Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bear- 
ing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I 
have great heaviness and continual sor- 
row in my heart. For I could wish that 
myself were accursed from Christ for my 
brethren, my kinsmen according to the 
flesh : who are Israelites ; to whom per- 
tameth the adoption, and the glory, and 
the covenants, and the giving of the law, 
and the service of God, and the promises ; 
whose are the fathers, and of whom as 
concerning the flesh Christ came, who is 
over all, God blessed for ever. Amen."^ 
The great heaviness and continual 
sorrow of heart expressed in this touch- 
ing assurance, and the astounding dec- 
laration that he could wish that him- 
self were accursed from Christ for his 
brethren, his kinsmen according to the 
flesh, are wholly unaccountable on the 

1 Rom. ix. 1-5. 



16 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

supposition that they were already saved. 
No, they were lost ! and the apostle, 
taught by the Spirit, knew they were 
lost, in the very face .of their exalted 
privileges and their high religious cha- 
racter in the estimation of men. To 
them pertained the adoption, and the 
glory, and the covenants, and the giv- 
ing of the law, and the service of God, 
and the promises, and the fathers, and 
national connection with the Messiah ; 
but still they needed to be saved. Many 
of them could say, as did Paul describing 
his own state previous to his new^ birth 
by faith in Jesus, " Circumcised the 
eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the 
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the He- 
brews ; as touching the law a Pharisee ; 
concerning zeal, persecuting the Church ; 
touching the righteousness which is in 
the law, blameless;"^ but still they 
needed to be saved. Many of them, like 
the Pharisee of whom our Saviour speaks, 

^ Phil. iii. 5, 6. 



17 

could stand in the temple and pray by 
themselves, and say, " God, I thank thee 
that I am not as other men are, extor- 
tioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this 
publican : I fast twice in the week, I give 
tithes of all that I possess;"^ but still 
they needed to be saved. Many of them 
made broad their phylacteries, and en- 
larged the borders of their garments, and 
offered long prayers, and scrupulously ob- 
served the Sabbath, and compassed sea 
and land to gain one proselyte, and added 
to the burdensome requirements of the 
ceremonial laiv by self-hnposed regula- 
tions, and in the ardour of their devotion 
outstripped the demands of divine or- 
dinances by keeping pace with the nu- 
merous traditions of the elders ; but still 
they needed to be saved. 

Read the pathetic lamentation of our 
Lord when He beheld the city of David 
and wept over it : not the tears of silent 
sympathy, as at the grave of Lazarus, but 

^ Luke xviii. 11, 12. 
2* B 



18 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

with all the tokens of consummate and 
convulsive grief, saying, " If thou hadst 
known, even thou, at least in this thy 
day, the things which belong unto thy 
peace ! but now they are hid from thine 
eyes."^ Read the last message which 
He delivered in the presence of the peo- 
ple when He cried, ^'O Jerusalem, Je- 
rusalem, thou that killest the prophets, 
and stonest them which are sent unto 
thee, how often would I have gathered 
thy children together, even as a hen 
gathereth her chickens under her wings, 
and ye would not ! Behold, your house 
is left unto you desolate. For I say unto 
you. Ye shall not see me henceforth, till 
ye shall say. Blessed is he that cometh in 
the name of the Lord,"^ Surely it re- 
quires no other evidence to prove that 
the Israelites as a body were unsaved at 
the time the apostle wrote; but if they 
needed to be saved, what must be said of 
the rest of mankind ? If they were lost, 

1 Luke xix. 42. ^ jyi^tt. xxiii. 37-39. 



man's need of salvation. 19 

notwithstanding their favourable circum- 
stances, their peculiar advantages, their 
distinguishing mercies, their strict mo- 
rality, their religious fervour, their illus- 
trious ancestry, and their wonderful his- 
tory, — radiant with the glory of Jeho- 
vah's presence, — how is it possible that 
"sinners of the Gentiles" have no need 
of a gracious and mighty hand to pluck 
them as brands from the burning? 
Should any one reply to all this that the 
Jews were condemned for their rejection 
of Christ, I admit the justice of the an- 
swer, but immediately turn and bring the 
charge of the same stupendous sin against 
every unbeliever who may read this book. 
II. Yes, my friend, you are involved 
in the same condemnation, as I shall now 
proceed to show, and thus bring forward 
my second argument to convince you of 
your need of salvation. All wdio profess 
to accept any portion of the Scriptures 
as inspired agree that the words of Jesus 
must be regarded as authoritative and 



20 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

final upon every doctrine wliicli He 
teaches. Let us see, then, what He re- 
peatedly affirms touching the necessity 
of faith and the soul-destroying crime of 
unbelief. In His memorable interview 
with Nicodemus, after setting forth the 
amazing love of God in the gift of this 
dear Son, He adds, " He that believeth on 
him is not condemned : but he that be- 
lieveth not is condemned already, because 
he hath not believed in the name of the 
only begotten Son of God."^ 

Again we hear His solemn testimony : 
" Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that 
heareth my word, and believeth on him 
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and 
shall not come into condemnation [or 
judgment] ; but is passed from death unto 
life."^ " Then said they unto him. What 
shall w^e do, that w^e might work the 
works of God ? Jesus answered and said 
unto them. This is the work of God, that 
ye believe on him whom he hath sent, 

1 John iii. 18. ^ j^^n v. 24. ^ Jq^^ vi. 28, 29, 



?^3 



man's need of salvation. 21 

" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that 
believetli on me hath everlasting life."^ 
'^ If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall 
die in your sins."^ " Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 
. . . But ye believe not, because ye are 
not of my sheep, as I said unto you."^ 
" Therefore they could not believe, be- 
cause that Esaias said again. He hath 
blinded their eyes, and hardened their 
heart; that they should not see with 
their eyes, nor understand with their 
heart, and be converted, and I should 
heal them."^ When the Spirit is come 
He will convince the world " of sin, be- 
cause they believe not on me.'' ^ 

These passages are taken almost at ran- 
dom from a single Gospel, and it is un- 
necessary to say that there is nothing in 
all the word of God to contradict them. 
Elsewhere it is written that the Saviour, 
whose infinite love for the sinner led Him 

I John vi. 47. ^ j^iu^ ^^^ 24. ^ j^j^,-^ ^ 7^ 26. 
* John xii. 39, 40. ^ J ohn xvi. 9. 



22 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

to the cross, declared among the last 
words He uttered on earth, " He that be- 
lieyeth not shall be damned;"^ and the 
Holy Spirit says, by the ajDOstle John, 
" He that believeth not God, hath made 
him a liar ; because he believeth not the 
record that God gave of his Son." ^ Such, 
then, is the vital importance of belief in 
Christ, that salvation in all its unutter- 
able meaning, in all its boundless extent, 
in all its everlasting joys, depends upon 
its exercise ; and such is the horrible sin 
of unbelief that if persisted in to the 
close of life, it will certainly drown the 
soul in perdition. 

How imperative, then, is the duty of 
the unbeliever to flee for refuge to the 
cross of Christ ! That such a refuge 
should have been provided in the im- 
measurable grace and unsearchable wis- 
dom of God affords overwhelming dem- 
onstration of the fact that the entire hu- 
man race Avas in extremest need : " for 

1 ]\Iavk xvi. 16. ''I John v. IC 



23 

God so loved the world, that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth m him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life.'^ ^ The preciousness 
of the gift proves the vastness of the 
want it was designed to meet, and the 
costliness of the sacrifice reveals the 
depth of the woe it was intended to reach. 
Oh, if man did not need salvation, Jesus 
had not died ; for it is inconceivable that 
the Father could have sent Him forth 
from His bosom, and emptied Him of 
His divine and eternal glory, and hum- 
bled Him to be made of a woman, made 
under the law, and laid upon Him the 
crushing burden of our iniquities, and 
looked upon His prostrate form in Geth- 
semane, and witnessed the blows that 
bruised His face, and heard His discon- 
solate cry on Calvary, unless a stern ne- 
cessity had demanded this profound con- 
descension and mysterious suffering. 
The Russian mother who threw one 

^ John iii. 16. 



24 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

and another, and then another, of her 
children to the howling wolves pursuing 
her sleigh, showed the desperate straits 
to which she was driven to save her life ; 
and the Russian serf who stayed the 
hungry pack wdth his own body that his 
master might escape their devouring jaws, 
proved how fearful was the emergency 
that required such an act of dauntless 
courage and moral heroism. " Greater 
love hath no man than this, that a man 
lay down his life for his friends;"^ and 
when Christ laid down His life, not for 
His friends, but for His enemies, He gave 
the most convincing proof of which the 
human mind can conceive both of the 
greatness of His love and the greatness 
of their need. 

Unbelief, therefore, is a rejection of love 
in its highest possible manifestation, and 
hence it is represented as the root of all 
other sin and the crowning iniquity. It 
not only sets at defiance the insulted jus- 

^ John XV. 13. 



man's need of salvation. 25 

tice of God, but, far more, it treats with 
disdain or receives with unmoved indif- 
ference His overtures of mercy. It de- 
rides His authority, it despises His law, it 
ridicules His warnings, it rejects His in- 
vitations, it slights His compassion, it calls 
Him a liar when He says, " He that be- 
lieveth not shall be damned," and it joins 
the ribald crowd in reviling His dying 
Son, or at least it turns with heartless un- 
concern from that wail of forsaken woe 
that shook the mighty pillars of the 
globe. 

" I asked the heavens, "What foe to God hath done 
This unexampled deed ? The heavens exclaim, 

^^Twas man! and we, in horror, snatched the sun 
From such a spectacle of guilt and shame !' 

" I asked the Sea : the Sea in fury boiled, 

And answered with his voice of storms, ^ ' Twas man ! 
My waves in panic at his crime recoiled. 

Disclosed the abyss, and from the centre ran !' 

'' I asked the Earth : the Earth replied aghast, 

^^Tii-as man! and such strange pangs my bosom rent, 
That still I groan and shudder at the past !' 

To man, gay, smiling, thoughtless man, I went, 
And asked him next : he turned a scornful eye. 
Shook his proud head, and deigned me no reply." 
3 



26 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Think you that a sin like this, which 
remains unsubdued and unaffected even 
at the cross, can be a slight offence, or 
that man does not need salvation while it 
holds dominion oyer him? If every 
other sin were forgiven, or if no other 
sin had been committed, this alone would 
drive the unbeliever away for ever from 
the presence of God, and rear an insur- 
mountable barrier between his soul and 
true happiness. 



CHAPTEE 11. 

MAN'S NEED OF SALVATION. 
III. 

Oli^NBELIEF and all other iniquities 
hW ^P^'^^^S frc>m a nature essentially 
^^^G corrupt, aecorcling to the abun- 
^^ dant testimony of God, and conse- 
quently the force of the argument to es- 
tablish man's need of salvation becomes 
irresistible if this can be shown. Let us 
look, then, at some of the testimony as it 
lies scattered throughout the Bible. In 
the beginning of the inspired word, and 
at a period in the history of our race 
which poets delight to celebrate as marked 
by winning simplicity and crow^ned with 
childlike innocence, we are told, " God 
saw that the wickedness of man was great 
in the earth, and that every imagina- 

27 



28 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

tion of the thouglits of his heart was only 
evil continually."^ The words every ^nd 
only and evil and continually are ex- 
ceedingly significant in this connection, 
for they show that the whole fabrication 
or formation which distinguished him 
from the brute creation, including all the 
imaginations, desires, and purposes of the 
soul, were sinful, and sinful unceasingly. 
Again, we read : " God looked upon the 
earth, and behold, it was corrupt ; for all 
flesh had corrupted his way upon the 
earth.'' ^ Again, hundreds of years later, 
it is said : " The Loed looked down from 
heaven upon the children of men, to see 
if there were any that did understand 
and seek God. They are all gone aside, 
they are all together become filthy : there 
is none that doeth good, no, not one."^ 
Again, Jehovah says, by the prophet 
Isaiah : " The whole head is sick, and the 
whole heart faint. From the sole of the 
foot even unto the head there is no sound- 

^ Gen. vi. 5. ^ Gen. vi. 12. ^ Ps. xiv. 2, 3. 



29 

ness in it ; but wounds, and bruises, and 
jDutrefying sores : tliey have not been 
closed, neither bound up, neither molli- 
fied with ointment."^ Again, He de- 
clares, by the prophet Jeremiah, that 
" the heart is deceitful above all things, 
and desperately wicked : who can know 
it?"^ 

Passing by other testimony in the old 
covenant Scriptures which could be gath- 
ered from every book, and in some form 
from nearly every chapter, we hear our 
Lord saying, " That which is born of the 
flesh is flesh," ^ and, '' From within, out of 
the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, 
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, 
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciv- 
iousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, 
foolishness; all these evil things come 
from within, and defile the man."^ 

Glancing forward a little farther, we 
find the inspired apostle writing, "We 

^ Isa. i. 5, 6. 2 Jer. xvii. 9. 

2 John iii. 6. * Mark vii. 21-23. 

3 '^ 



30 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

have before proved both Jews and Gen- 
tiles, that they are all nnder sin ; as it is 
written, there is none righteons, no, not 
one : There is none that understandeth, 
there is none that seeketh after God. 
They are all gone out of the way, they 
are together become unprofitable; there 
is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
Their throat is an open sepulchre ; with 
their tongues they have used deceit ; the 
poison of asps is under their lij)s : whose 
mouth is full of cursing and bitterness : 
their feet are swift to shed blood : destruc- 
tion and misery are in their ways : and 
the way of peace have they not known : 
there is no fear of God before their 
eyes."^ 

The same apostle also says, ^^I know 
that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth 
no good thing ;'^^ "The carnal mind is 
enmity against God : for it is not subject 
to the law of God, neither indeed can 
be ;"^ and, " You hath he quickened, who 

1 Eom. iii. 9-18. ^ ;goni. vii. 18. '^ Rom. viii. 7. 



man's need of salvation. 31 

were dead [not sick nor dying, but dead] 
in trespasses and sins; wherein in time 
past ye walked according to the course of 
this world, according to the prince of the 
power of the air, the spirit that now 
worketh in the children of disobedience : 
among whom also we all had our con- 
versation in times past in the lusts 
of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the 
flesh and of the mind, and were by 
nature the children of wrath, even as 
others."^ 

Without quoting other declarations of 
the same import, enough has been said to 
show that, according to the infallible tes- 
timony of God, man is utterly ruined. 
Whenever, wherever, and however tried, 
he has proved a miserable failure. He 
was tried in Eden, and failed ; for having 
believed the devil's lie, and plucked the 
forbidden fruit, conscious guilt took the 
place of original innocence, " and Adam 
and his wife hid themselves from the 

1 Eph. ii. 1-3. 



32 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

presence of tlie Lord God amongst the 
trees of the garden.''^ He was tried be- 
fore the giving of the law, and failed, 
for " until the law sin was in the world ; " ^ 
and the Holy Ghost deduces from the 
universal prevalence of death the univer- 
sal supremacy of sin ; leading us to hear 
in every dying groan the thrilling an- 
nouncement and to see in every new- 
made grave the visible demonstration of 
Jehovah's righteous abhorrence of iniq- 
uity. He was tried under the law, and 
failed ; for it is written, " We know that 
what things soever the law saith, it saith 
to them who are under the law : that 
every mouth may be stopped, and all the 
world may become guilty before God. 
Therefore, by the deeds of law there 
shall no flesh be justified in his sight : 
for by the law is the knowledge of sin."^ 
He was tried under grace, and failed ; for 
" this is the condemnation, that light is 
come into the world, and men loved dark- 

1 Gen. iii. 8. ^ ^^^^ ^^ 13^ 3 jj^q^i. iii. 19, 20. 



man's need of salvation. 33 

ness rather than light, because their deeds 
were evil."^ 

We cannot be surprised at this repeated 
failure under the most favourable circum- 
stances, when we learn that after Adam 
fell from the high estate in which he was 
created, in the image and likeness of God, 
he " begat a son in his own likeness, after 
his image." ^ ''In Adam all die."^ 
" Through the offence of one many be 
dead.''^ ''^j one man's disobedience 
many were made [or constituted] sin- 
ners."^ "Who can bring a clean thing 
out of an unclean ? not one."^ " Behold, 
I was shapen in iniquity ; and in sin did 
my mother conceive me." ^ We discover, 
therefore, that there is an evil lying back 
of mere outward transgressions ; for God, 
who knows all about us, declares that we 
are by nature children of wrath, or ex- 
posed to punishment, and hence by na- 



1 John iii. 19. 


■' Gen. V. 3. 


3 1 Cor. XV. 22. 


* Rom. V. 15. 


^ Rom. V. 19. 
■ Ps. IL 5. 

C 


^ Job xiv. 4. 



34 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

ture we are corrupt. We have no diffi- 
culty in understanding what is meant 
when it is said that a tiger is by nature 
bloodthirsty ; and he who is willing to 
accept God's testimony, although it pro- 
foundly abases self, can have no diffi- 
culty in understanding what the Bible 
means when it says that by nature we 
are sinful. 

IV. Out of this corrupt nature neces- 
sarily spring those evils deeds which are 
plainly contrary to the law of God, and 
therefore promptly recognized by an en- 
lightened conscience as sinful. " Do 
men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of 
thistles ? Even so every good tree bring- 
eth forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree 
bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree 
cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can 
a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.'' ^ 
Do what you will with a tree in culti- 
vating, pruning, or transplanting it, you 
can never so change its nature that thorns 

iMatt. vii. 16-18. 



35 

will bring forth grapes and thistles will 
produce figs. So, do what you will with 
man by all the appliances of the highest 
culture and the most refined civilization, 
you cannot so change his nature that it 
will become holy. God can — and, blessed 
be His name ! He does — impart a new 
nature by the power of the Holy Ghost, 
through faith in Jesus Christ, as revealed 
in His word ; but the nature w^hich we 
derive by birth from our parents is evil, 
and only evil, continually. 

That the outward manifestations of 
such a nature should be in oj)en confiict 
with the law of God, is just what might 
be expected. '' Sin,'' we are told, " is the 
transgression of the law;"^ or, to render 
strictly, "sin is lawlessness:" it is that 
spirit of insubordination, that inward re- 
sistance to Divine authority, which dis- 
tinguishes the soul, and which finds ex- 
pression in unceasing and flagrant disobe- 
dience. The law says, " Thou shalt love 

^ 1 John iii. 4. 



36 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, 
and with all thy strength : this is the 
first commandment. And the second is 
like, namely this. Thou shalt love thy 
neighbour as thyself."^ Our theological 
writers are much in the habit of sjoeak- 
ing of the law as the transcript or re- 
flection of the Divine nature ; but surely 
the Divine nature is more than law, " for 
God is love;"^ and hence it would be 

better to sav that the law is the tran- 

»/ 

script or reflection of the Divine will 
concerning the duty of man to his Cre- 
ator and his fellow-creatures. 

Of this law it may be afiirmed, first, 
that it " is holy, and the commandment 
holy, and just, and good;"^ second, that 
it is immutable, for it " cometh down 
from the Father of lights, with whom 
is no variableness, neither shadow of 
turning,"^ and ^^till heaven and earth 

1 Mark xii. 30, 31. '^ 1 John iv. 8. 

^ Eom. vii. 12. ^ James i. 17. 



37 

pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise 
pass from the law, till all be fulfilled;"^ 
and third, that it has a penalty, for 
" Cursed is every one that continueth not 
in all thin OS which are written in the book 
of the law to do them;"^ ^'the wages of 
sin is death ;"^ and "the soul that sin- 
neth, it shall die.""^ Now, when you add 
to this the solemn and distinct testimony 
of the Bible, over and over again repeated, 
that " all have sinned, and come short of 
the glory of God,'^^ it is impossible to re- 
sist the conclusion that every man by 
nature is in immediate and inexpressible 
need of salvation. 

V. After what has been said it is 
hardly necessary to dwell upon the words 
of our Lord when He exclaimed, " Verily, 
verily, I say unto thee, Excej)t a man be 
born again, he cannot see the kingdom 
of God."^ When He made this state- 
ment He was speaking with Nicodemus, 

1 Matt. V. 18. 2 Qal. iii. 10. 3 -^Q^^ ^'^ 23. 

* Ezek. xviii. 4. ^ ^^^^ iii. 23. 6 j^hn iii. 3. 

4 



38 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

wlio was a master of Israel, a ruler of the 
Jews, and blameless, as we would say, in 
all his character and conduct. Even he 
was informed that. Except a man (or, as 
it is in the original. Except any one, Ex- 
cept every one) be born again, he cannot 
see the kingdom of God. The best, 
therefore, can do with nothing less than 
this, whatever may be their standing in 
their own estimation or in the estimation 
of others. " Marvel not that I said unto 
thee, Ye must be born again." ^ I do 
not deny for a moment the possession of 
amiable traits of character and virtuous 
principles of conduct by thousands who 
know nothing of Christ as their Saviour ; 
but still I dare not go back of His own 
explicit declaration, "Verily, verily, I 
say unto thee, Except a man be born of 
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God."^ 

All the attractiveness of the most lovely 
disposition, and all the firmness of the 

1 John iii. 7. '^ John iii. 5. 



man's need of salvation. 39 

most incorruptible integrity, may exist 
without the slightest reference to the will 
and glory of God, and therefore they 
may exist without the least spiritual life. 
We often witness in the brute creation 
touching exhibitions of devoted affection, 
of unswerving fidelity, of unflinching 
courage, and of what would be termed in 
man the loftiest nobility of action ; but 
among the inferior animals there is a 
total want of spiritual life, because there 
is a total want of capacity to know God 
and to perform these heroic deeds from 
the high and commanding motive of re- 
gard to the pleasure of God. Now, of 
human beings it may truthfully be af- 
firmed, no less than of the lower orders 
of beings, that by nature they are inca- 
pable of knowing and loving the true God 
and that they are utterly devoid of spir- 
itual life until born again and made a 
new creation in Christ Jesus. Out of 
scores of texts that could be easily quoted 
to sustain this important proposition, two 



40 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

or three must answer for the present : 
"He that hath the Son hath life; and 
he that hath not the Son of God hath 
not life."^ "Whatsoever is not of faith 
is sin."^ " Without faith it is impossible 
to please him."^ Whatever else a man 
has, whatever excellences that excite our 
admiration and win our regard, he has 
not life until he has the Son by faith in 
His name ; and hence we again see man's 
deep need of salvation. 

VI. The last argument I advance to 
prove this fact, which it is absolutely es- 
sential that my readers should receive 
with an intelligent and fixed conviction 
of its truth, is derived from the oft re- 
peated declarations of God threatening 
the most terrible punishment against 
those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ 
in His Divine j)erson and atoning work. 
" He that believeth on the Son hath 
everlasting life : and he that believeth 
not the Son shall not see life; but the 

1 1 John V. 12. 2 j^oj^ xiv. 23. ^ ^i^h. xi. 6. 



man's need of salvation. 41 

wrath of God abideth on him."^ "Go 
ye into all the world, and preach the 
Gospel to every creature. He that be- 
lieveth and is baptized shall be saved ; 
but he that believeth not shall be damn- 
ed."^ "And these shall go away into 
everlasting punishment : but the right- 
eous into life eternal."^ "But the fear- 
ful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, 
and murderers, and whoremongers, and 
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall 
have their part in the lake which burneth 
with fire and brimstone: which is the 
second death." ^ 

Every careful reader of the Holy Scrip- 
tures knows that such passages are con- 
stantly found in the sacred pages; and 
if any are disposed to call them in ques- 
tion, they should remember that their 
controversy is not with the author of this 
book, but with the Author of the Bible. 
God Himself, "the Father of mercies,"^ 

1 John iii. 36. ^ Mark xvi. 15, 16. ^ Matt. xxv. 46. 
* Eev. xxi. 8. ^ 2 Cor. i. 3. 

4* 



42 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

who " doth not afflict willingly nor grieve 
the children of men/'^ has distinctly 
w^arned us that if we die in unbelief 
eternal and intolerable sufferings await 
us in the future world. Dear, dying 
reader, heed the warning, I beseech you, 
and '^flee from the wrath to come."^ I 
have shown you, upon the testimony 
of One who cannot lie, that all men, 
without a single exception, as they are 
born into the world, need salvation, and 
I pray God that you will not slight this 
testimony. Your unbelief w^ill not affect 
its truth for an instant, but as the Lord 
liveth, your unbelief, if persisted in, will 
seal your "everlasting destruction from 
the presence of the Lord, and from the 
glory of his power ; when he shall come 
to be glorified in his saints, and to be ad- 
mired in all them that believe (because 
our testimony among you was believed) 
in that day."^ 

1 Lam. iii. 33. ^ jyi^tt. iii. 7. ^ 2 Thess. i. 9, 10. 




CHAPTER III. 

MAN'S SINCERITY CANNOT SAVE HIM, 

'For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but 
not according to knowledge."— Romans x. 2. 

P||T is a common opinion that it mat- 
)j| ters little what a man's religious 
views may be, provided he is sin- 
cere in his belief. This opinion is 
sometimes advanced with all the assur- 
ance of conscious truth, sometimes with 
all the arrogance of conscious error, and 
at all times with a confidence in its sound- 
ness that surprises the thoughtful mind. 
It is not only received as an axiom by 
the world, lulling the dead soul into a 
profounder slumber, but it is held to a 
lamentable extent by the Church, crip- 
pling her energies and nullifying her tes- 
timony for Jesus. 

43 



44 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

We often hear Christians apply the 
term "good" to those who embrace and 
propagate fatal heresies, simply because 
they appear to be honest in their convic- 
tions and labour for the advancement of 
various humanitarian and philanthropic 
schemes.- Nay, in some of the most 
popular pulpits of the day preachers are 
found sneering at "creeds/' and jour- 
nals professedly conducted in the interest 
of Christ's suffering cause pour contempt 
through their columns upon what they 
are pleased to call "a dry orthodoxy." 
It seems to be taken for granted that the 
time has come to do away with " doc- 
trinal differences/' as belonging to a 
former and darker age, and to substitute 
a polite education, a benevolent dispo- 
sition, and refined manners in place of 
regeneration by the Holy Ghost, faith in 
the Son of God, and holiness of life. 

Public speakers and writers of dis- 
tinction boldly avow that man is no more 
responsible for his belief than he is for 



45 

the colour of his eyes or the height of 
his stature ; and they assume that it is 
the narrowest bigotry to make him an 
offender not only for his words, but for 
his very thoughts. It must be confessed 
that their position, viewed from an earthly 
instead of a heavenly stand-point, is 
guarded by strong defences, and it is 
useless to attack it except with ^Hhe 
sword of the Spirit, which is the word 
of God."^ I do not assert that it is im- 
pregnable to the assaults of human rea- 
son, for, no doubt, arguments can be con- 
structed which would sweep it from its 
very foundations ; but, after all, it is only 
the testimony of the Sacred Scriptures, 
accompanied with Divine energy, that 
can convince the intellect, conquer the 
heart, and control the conduct. Some of 
these arguments may be briefly noticed 
in their proper place ; but I frankly say 
I do not expect my readers to receive 
any real good from the discussion of this 

1 Eph. vi. 17. 



46 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

important subject unless they bow with 
implicit submission to the authority of 
the Bible. 

The question, then, is simply this : 
Does God hold man responsible for his 
belief as w^ell as for his conduct, or will 
mere sincerity, although we may sincerely 
believe an error, entitle us to His favour ? 
The former I affirm, the latter I deny; 
and I appeal at once to the inspired Book 
which contains the authentic decision of 
'' the Lord of all the earth." 

I. We gather from the words of the 
apostle which introduce the present chap- 
ter that the Jew^s were not only sincere 
in their religious convictions, but zealous, 
and zealous for God ; and yet they were 
lost, for he writes : " Brethren, my heart's 
desire and prayer to God for Israel is, 
that they might be saved." They had 
zeal, but it was not according to know- 
ledge ; and therefore it could not com- 
mend them to the regard of Him who, 
though abundant in love and mercy, yet 



MAN^S SINCERITY CAXXOT SAVE HIM. 47 

desireth ''truth in tlie inward parts." ^ 
The Holy Ghost informs us that they 
were ignorant of God's righteousness, and 
that they were held accountable for this 
ignorance ; for all their efforts to establish 
their own righteousness were unavailing, 
and they were finally rejected, and sent 
as wanderers through the earth under the 
visible marks of Jehovah's displeasure. 
" I bear them record," says the apostle, 
" that they have a zeal of God, but not 
according to knowledge ; " and hence 
their sincerity did not save them. 

The Saviour tells us that in the ardour 
of their zeal they compassed ''sea and 
land to make one proselyte ; and when 
he is made," He adds, "ye make him 
twofold more the child of hell than your- 
selves."^ Here we see that the most in- 
tense sincerity in maintaining their re- 
ligious opinions, and the most fervent de- 
votion in seeking to spread them abroad, 
could not deliver them from the fearful 

1 Ps. li. 6. 2^Iatt. xxiii. 15. 



48 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

charge of being the children of hell, 
and of involving all whom they per- 
suaded to receive their views in a com- 
mon ruin. Again, our Lord wept over 
Jerusalem, exclaiming, " If thou hadst 
known, even thou, at least in this thy day, 
the things which belong unto thy peace ! 
but now they are hid from thine eyes."^ 
According to this solemn testimony, their 
crushing doom came upon them just be- 
cause they kneiv not the things which 
belonged to their peace, and their over- 
throw as a nation was the result of their 
ignorance. Again, He said to them, 
" Now ye seek to kill me, a man that 
hath told you the truth, which I have 
heard of God. . . . Ye are of your 
father the devil, and the lusts of your 
father ye will do. He was a murderer 
from the beginning, and abode not in the 
truth, because there is no truth in him. 
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of 
his own : for he is a liar, and the father 

^ Luke xix. 42. 



man's sincerity cannot save him. 49 

of it. And because I tell ye the truth, 
ye believe me not."^ They were called 
the children of the devil, not because 
they were insincere, irreligious, or indif- 
ferent to the claims of God ujDon their 
worship, but because they believed not 
the truth when it was made known by 
Him who is Truth itself. 

So the apostle Peter, after boldly tell- 
ing the people that they had " killed the 
Prince of life,"^ says : "And, now, breth- 
ren, I wot that through ignorance ye did 
it, as did also your rulers."^ But did 
their ignorance of Christ's true character 
as the anointed One, or their sincere be- 
lief that He was an impious blasphemer, 
atone for their stupendous crime in put- 
ting Him to death ? Not at all ; for the 
same apostle earnestly exhorts them to 
repent of that crime, declaring that 
with wicked hands they had crucified 
and slain him. The apostle Paul, also, 
referring to the hidden wisdom which 

1 John viii. 40, 44, 45. ^ j^^^^ [{[ i^ 3 ^^.^g jjj i^^ 

5 D 



50 THE WAY MADE PLAIX. 

God ordained before the world unto our 
glory, writes, " Which none of the princes 
of this world knew ; for had they known I 
it, they would not have crucified the Lord 
of glory/' ^ but their want of knowledge 
did not release them from responsibility, 
however sincere their convictions ; be- 
cause God has again and again announced 
that He will bring them into judgment for 
the murder of His Son. 

By the mouth of the prophet Hosea, 
He said, '' My people are destroyed for 
lack of knowledge : because thou hast 
rejected knowledge, I will also reject 
thee;"^ and the same principle holds 
good under the dispensation of grace. 
He " will have all men to be saved," we 
are told, " and to come unto the know- 
ledge of the truth ; " ^ and again : " For this 
cause God shall send them strong delu- 
sion, that they should believe a lie : that 
they all might be damned who believed 
not the truth, but had pleasure in un- 

1 1 Cor. ii. 8. '' Hos. iv. 6. ^ j xim. ii. 4. 



man's sincerity cannot save him. 51 

righteousness."^ "For some/' says the 
apostle, " have not the knowledge of God ; 
I sj)eak this to your shame." ^ "Why," 
asked the disciples of our Lord, " speak- 
est thou unto them in parables? He 
answered and said unto them, Because it 
is given unto you to know the mysteries 
of the kingdom of heaven, but to them 
it is not given. For whosoever hath, to 
him shall be given, and he shall have 
more abundance : but whosoever hath 
not, from him shall be taken away even 
that which he hath. Therefore speak I 
to them in parables : because they seeing 
see not; and hearing they hear not, 
neither do they understand." ^ 

But without quoting additional state- 
ments of the same import from the in- 
spired word, enough has been said to 
prove that according to the unerring tes- 
timony of God it is not a thing of small 
moment whether a man does or does not 
believe the truth. If in His infinite 

1 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. ^ ^ Q^r. xv. 34. ^ M^tt. xiii. 11-13. 



52 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

grace and condescension He has given us 
a revelation, He justly requires us to ac- 
cept it as true ; and our disbelief of it 
He justly regards and treats as a sin de- 
manding the severest punishment. Christ 
is the centre and circumference of that 
revelation ; for in its symbols and songs, 
in its prophecies and parables, in its doc- 
trines and duties, it all revolves around 
His Divine person and atoning work on 
the cross, and hence our reception or re- 
jection of the Saviour is made the turn- 
ing-point in the destiny of the soul. 
" He that believeth and is baptized shall 
be saved ; but he that believeth not shall 
be damned."^ "He that believeth on 
him is not condemned : but he that be- 
lieveth not is condemned already, because 
he hath not believed in the name of the 
only begotten Son of God."^ And to 
the same effect. He declares, "He that 
believeth on the Son hath everlasting 
life : and he that believeth not the Son 

1 Mark xvi. 16. 2 j^y^^ -^^^ jg^ 



ISFAN^S SINCERITY CANNOT SAVE HIM. 53 

shall not see life ; but the wrath of God 
abicleth on him."^ 

It is a remarkable fact, deserving the 
serious attention of my reader, that while 
so many are saying, It is of no conse- 
quence what a man believes, provided he 
is sincere, the '' Lokd God of truth "^ is 
solemnly saying, " He that belie veth not 
the Son shall not see life." The opinion 
which I am here opposing confidently 
asserts that it is not necessary to believe 
the very doctrine which our Maker de- 
clares to be essential to the deliverance 
of the soul from endless death ! One 
says. He that believeth not shall be saved, 
if he is sincere in his unbelief; the other 
says. He that believeth not shall be 
damned. Judge ye which of these two 
witnesses is entitled to our confidence. 
" Let God be. true, but every man a 
liar."^ ^' Who is a liar but he that de- 
nieth that Jesus is the Christ?"* ^'He 

^ John iii. 36. 2 pg xxxi. 5. 

3 Rom. iii. 4. * 1 John ii. 22. 

5* 



54 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

that believetli not God liath made him a 
liar."^ It comes, then, to this : either the 
common notion that man is not respon- 
sible for his belief is false, or the eternal 
Creator of heaven and earth has not 
spoken the truth in the Bible ; for the 
former is a flat contradiction of the latter. 
The word of the Lord, the work of Christ, 
and the way of redemption from first to 
last, all hold forth the necessity not only 
of a sincere belief, but of a belief accord- 
ing to knowledge : and there is no mean- 
ing nor reality in anything that is written 
in the Sacred Scriptures if a sinner can 
be saved by believing an error, although 
he may believe it with all his heart. Of 
the saved our Lord says in His prayer 
to the Father, " This is life eternal, that 
they might know thee the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."^ 
Of the lost it is said, they have " the un- 
derstanding darkened, being alienated 
from the life of God through the igno- 

1 1 Jobn V. 10. '' Jolin xvii. 3. 



man's sincerity cannot save him. 55 

ranee that is in them, because of the 
blindness of their heart ;"^ and '^the 
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven 
with his mighty angels, in flaming fire 
taking vengeance on them that know not 
God, and that obey not the gospel of our 
Lord Jesus Christ."^ 

Even the heathen who walk or stumble 
in the dim starlight of nature are ac- 
countable for their belief; and hence it 
is written, " The wrath of God is revealed 
from heaven against all ungodliness and 
unrighteousness of men, w^ho hold the 
truth in unrighteousness; because that 
which may be known of God is manifest 
in them ; for God hath showed it unto 
them. For the invisible things of him 
from the creation of the world are clearly 
seen, being understood by the things that 
are made, even his eternal power and 
Godhead ; so that they are without ex- 
cuse."'^ Again : " As many as have sin- 
ned without law shall also perish without 

1 Eph. iv. 18. '' 2 Thess. i. 7, S. ^ ^^^ ^ \d,-2^. 



56 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

law : and as many as have sinned in the 
law shall be judged by the law ; (for not 
the hearers of the law are just before 
God, but the doers of the law shall be 
justified : for when the Gentiles, which 
have not the law, do by nature the things 
contained in the law, these, having not 
the law, are a law unto themselves : which 
shew the work of the law written in their 
hearts, their conscience also bearing Avit- 
ness, and their thoughts the meanwhile 
accu sing or else excusing one another ; ) 
in the day when God shall judge the se- 
crets of men by Jesus Christ according 
to my gospel."-^ If then those who have 
no revelation in the written word are re- 
sponsible according to the measure of 
their opportunity for knowing God, surely 
we who live in the unclouded glory of 
His grace will be called to a strict ac- 
count for the manner in which we treat 
the messages of His love. If w^e reject 
them, the plea that we sincerely believed 

1 Rom. ii. 12-16. 



man's sincerity cannot save him. 67 

tliey were not worthy of credit will not 
avail to justify us at His bar ; for unbelief 
is the result, as He declares^ of unwilling- 
ness to believe ; it is the crowning sin of 
our race ; and our belief or disbelief can- 
not alter the nature of eternal truth* 
" This is the condemnation, that light is 
come into the world, and men loved dark- 
ness rather than light, because their deeds 
were evil." We are compelled, there- 
fore, to surrender the vain conceit that 
sincerity will save us, or to yield our pre- 
tended faith in God's revealed word and 
take our proper place in the ranks of 
scoffers and sceptics. 

II. The denial that man is responsible 
for his religious belief leads legitimately 
and logically to the conclusion that he is 
not responsible for his conduct : because 
the two sustain an intimate and indis- 
soluble relation to each other. One is 
the fountain, the other is the stream ; one 
is the foundation, the other is the super- 
structure ; one is the root, the other is 



58 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the tree which springs from it and bears 
good or evil fruit. " Do men gather 
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 
Even so every good tree bringeth forth 
good fruit ; but a corrupt tree bringeth 
forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot 
bring forth evil fruit, neither can a cor- 
rupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every 
tree that bringeth not forth good fruit 
is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know 
them.''^ Human actions of a moral cha- 
racter are always the result of certain 
opinions or principles ; and they can 
neither rise higher than the source from 
which they spring, nor fail to partake of 
its nature. Good actions cannot proceed 
from evil principles, nor can evil actions 
proceed from good principles. A person's 
principles are himself : and surely it is a 
shallow philosophy which would not only 
divide him in twain, but array tlie sepa- 
rated portions of his being in direct op- 

1 Matt. vii. 16-20. 



man's sincerity cannot save him. 59 

position, pronouncing one part of liim 
virtuous and the other vicious. 

If a man sincerely believes that there 
is no God, he will be an atheist practical- 
ly ; if he believes that prayer is a vain 
and useless ceremony, he will never bow 
the knee in supplication to the throne of 
grace ; if he believes that it is unneces- 
sary to confess Christ before men, he will 
refuse to be enrolled among the number 
of the Saviour's disciples ; if he believes 
that the gratification of his appetites is 
the highest end of life, he will be a sen- 
sualist ; if he believes that the acquisition 
of wealth in any manner is the supreme 
good, he will be a thief or swindler when- 
ever he can feed the passion of his soul 
without danger of detection and punish- 
ment ; and so of every other belief that 
is connected with our conduct as account- 
able beings in the unavoidable relations 
we sustain to our Creator and our fellow- 
creatures. We may or may not believe 
the assertions of human science, the testi- 



60 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

mony of uninspired history, and the nar- 
ratives of travellers in new and unknown 
countries, without damage to our eternal 
interests, because these matters do not 
necessarily carry our faith into the high 
region of morals : but the moment we in- 
vade that loftier sphere, our belief is 
clothed with the dread responsibility of 
personal action, because it is sure to ex- 
press itself in outward manifestations 
that exhibit its character as righteous or 
sinful in the sight of God. If the be- 
lief is wrong, the life must be wrong ; 
and, on the other hand, if the life is 
wrong, the belief must be wrong. We 
may say reverently, therefore, that it is 
impossible for the ^^ Judge of all the 
^arth,"^ ^' which searcheth the reins and 
hearts,"^ to take notice of the life with- 
out also taking notice of the belief which 
gives shape to the deeds, and tone to the 
speech, and direction to the behaviour, 
of His creatures. Hence, the more sin- 

1 Gen. xviii. 25. ^ j^^v. ii. 23. 



man's sincerity cannot save him. 61 

cerely an error is believed, the more surely 
it will receive a righteous retribution, 
because the more certainly it leads to 
open disregard of His truth or defiance 
of His authority. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MAN'S SINCERITY CANNOT SAVE HIM, 
III. 

fowTHAT man is responsible for his be- 
6^y lief is the distinct testimony of 
J©^^ consciousness. The process of rea- 
^G soning by which this proposition 
may be established is simple, but direct 
and conclusive. That he is conscious of 
responsibility for his actions is almost 
universally admitted, and is fully attested 
by the sacrifices and superstitions, by the 
penances and prayers, by the terrors and 
remorse, that have marked his history in 
all ages and in all lands. That he is also 
conscious of responsibility for the dispo- 
sitions of his heart is equally obvious, for 
they alone give moral character to his 
conduct ; and if they are left out of view, 



62 



he is no more accountable for his deeds 
than are the brutes that ]3erish. Hence, 
if he flies into an unreasonable rage at 
the bidding of an unsubdued temjDer, 
when the calm of sober reflection has 
succeeded the storm of passion he con- 
demns himself not only for what he has 
done, but for what he has felt. And 
our opinion with regard to moral truth 
being largely under the control of our 
dispositions, and intimately associated, as 
has been proved, with our moral actions, 
a consciousness of responsibility for our 
belief inevitably follows ; and the moment 
we are awakened from the deej) sleep of 
sin and s]3iritual death by the quickening 
voice of the Son of God, we pass judg- 
ment upon our belief as wrong, no less 
than upon our conduct. 

The Saviour, describing the work of 
the Holy Spirit in the salvation of men, 
says He will convince '' of sin, because 
they believe not on me;"^ and the 

^ John xvi. 9. 



64 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

first experience, perhaps, of the enlight- 
ened and regenerated soul, is to see that 
his unbelief for so many years is the 
most aggravated of all his iniquities. It 
is certain, then, that with the millions of 
Christians who have lived there has been 
a clear consciousness of responsibility for 
belief ; and if it is not so with others, it 
only proves that they have fallen under 
the spell of a dreadful sorcery which has 
locked them fast in spiritual insensibility. 
There are multitudes who have no con- 
sciousness of sin for their conduct; but 
this fact, instead of showing that they are 
not sinners, only reveals the depth of 
ruin into which they are plunged. If 
they are ever raised out of that ruin by 
the exceeding greatness of God's power, 
they will not only perceive that they are 
sinful in their outward actions, but will 
pass an immediate sentence of condemna- 
tion against themselves for the long-cher- 
ished sin of unbelief. 

Thus the apostle Paul, referring to the 



man's sincerity cannot save him. 65 

character of his belief before he was a 
Christian, says : " I verily thought with 
myself that I ought to do many things 
contrary to the name of Jesus of Naza- 
reth. Which things I also did in Jeru- 
salem : and many of the saints did I shut 
up in prison, having received authority 
from the chief priests ; and when they 
were put to death, 1 gave my voice against 
them."^ Again, he writes to the Gala- 
tians : " Ye have heard of my conversa- 
tion in time past in the Jews' religion, 
how that beyond measure I persecuted 
the church of God, and wasted it; and 
profited in the Jews' religion above many 
my equals in mine own nation, being 
more exceedingly zealous of the tradi- 
tions of my fathers."^ But the sincerity 
of his attachment to the religious system 
under which he was educated, and the 
ardour of his zeal in upholding it, did not 
excuse him even at the bar of his own 
conscience when he received a knowledge 

A ActR xxvi. 9, 10. 2 Q.^1 i 13^ 14^ 

6 * E 



66 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

of tlie truth ; for years after lie was saved 
lie speaks of himself as the chief of sin- 
ners, and " the least of the apostles, that 
am not meet to be called an apostle, be- 
cause I persecuted the church of God."^ 
In the light from heaven that flashed 
around him on the road to Damascus he 
saw that his conduct had been fearfully 
wrong ; and as his conduct was the nat- 
ural and necessary result of his belief, he 
saw that his belief had been equally 
wrong, and was worthy of no slighter 
censure than the cruelties to w^hich it led. 
So will it be with you, dear reader, if 
God, who commanded the light to shine 
out of darkness, shines in your heart " to 
give the light of the knowledge of the 
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."^ 
IV. It is the judgment of mankind 
that we are responsible for our belief, 
and they hold us accountable for it both 
to civil governments and at the bar of 
public opinion. A criminal is never ac- 

1 1 Cor. XV. 9. 2 2 Cor. iv. 6. 



MAX's SINCERITY CANNOT SAVE HIM. 67 

quit ed on the ground that he sincerely 
believed the law which he had violated 
to be wrong, or that he sincerely believed 
it had been repealed, or that he sincerely 
believed its penalty would not be enforced. 
The law goes on the presumption that its 
subjects are acquainted with its provisions 
and punishments, and it requires them to 
answer not only for what they know, but 
for what they might know. It does not 
lay its arrest upon the idiotic or the in- 
sane to treat them as culprits, but where 
the moral faculty exists, associated with 
even a low degree of intelligence, it de- 
mands obedience to its authority under 
pain of its avenging justice. 

Let us suppose that a law is enacted 
by the legislative de23artment of the gov- 
ernment, declaring that on and after a 
certain day the crime of theft shall be 
punished with death instead of imprison- 
ment. Let us suppose further that this 
law has received the approval of the Ex- 
ecutive and the sanction of the highest 



68 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

judicial decision pronouncing it to be 
constitutional in all its features; and, 
still further, that it has been fully pro- 
mulgated through the press and placarded 
on the streets and highways. If a thief 
should be arrested, tried, and found 
guilty under this law, it would avail him 
little to plead that he sincerely believed 
it had not been decreed, or that he sin- 
cerely believed its penalty was unrea- 
sonably severe, or that he sincerely be- 
lieved it would remain a dead letter on 
the statute-book. It is probable that all 
the thieves in the community would sym- 
j)athize with his feelings, and claim that 
there was some force in his defence ; but 
surely every honest man would say that 
he was responsible for his belief and 
should be held to a strict account for his 
felony. If it can be shown that he might 
have informed himself of the existence of 
the law and the consequences of its vio- 
lation, no good citizen would urge that 
his ignorance or his mistake should form 



man's sincerity cannot save him. 69 

the ground of extenuating, much less of 
justifying, his offence. 

There are some things which a man 
may beheye or disbeheve without receiv- 
ing either commendation or censure, be- 
cause the will and the dispositions of the 
heart are not called into exercise in accej)t- 
ing them as true or in rejecting them as 
false. We do not say that he deserves 
praise for believing that two and two make 
four ; or for refusing to believe that two 
and two make five ; or for crediting the 
evidence of his senses ; or for relying upon 
the testimony of his own consciousness. 
In such cases the action of his mind is 
involuntary, so to sj)eak, and does not 
de]3end upon his inclination or power of 
choice. He is obliged to believe as he 
does ; or if, owing to some rare eccen- 
tricity, he believes otherwise, his condi- 
tion is justly regarded as demanding pity 
rather than blame. But there are other 
subjects which cannot be reached by 
mathematical reasoning, nor perceived by 



70 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the senses, nor known by intuition ; and 
when these subjects embrace moral truth, 
they at once determine man's responsi- 
bility for his belief, because his belief 
here depends upon his will and the state 
of his heart. 

I do not assert that he is responsible 
for believing without sufficient evidence ; 
but as evidence cannot be weighed with- 
out attention, and as the attention is sub- 
ject to his control, he is responsible for 
directing his thoughts dispassionately, 
earnestly, and without prejudice, to ques- 
tions that claim his regard, and that may 
at least affect his eternal destiny for weal 
or for woe. There are duties, for exam- 
ple, which arise from the various relations 
we sustain to our fellow-creatures ; and 
those who are too indifferent to inquire 
into the nature of these duties, or too de- 
praved to care for them, or too selfish to 
perform them, we hold responsible for 
being in a condition that prevents the 
discharge of their social obligations. Nor 



man's sincerity cannot save him. 71 

is it enough to say that they are respon- 
sible merely for their conduct ; because a 
moment's reflection will convince you 
that our judgment of them goes back to 
the state of mind or dispositions out of 
which their conduct naturally flows. If 
we know of a man who sincerely believes 
that he has a right to take his neighbour's 
proiDcrty, although he may not actually 
steal ; or of one who sincerely believes he 
has a right to take his neighbour's life 
on some slight provocation, although he 
may not actually kill ; or of one who sin- 
cerely believes he has a right to use his 
neighbour's name, although he may not 
actually commit forgery, — we do not 
hesitate to say that his very belief is 
wrong ; and we could not employ this term 
unless we held him responsible for his 
principles as well as his actions. Or if 
you deny this, then I immediately fasten 
you upon the other horn of the dilemma 
by showing that you cannot, with the 
least degree of consistency, hold such a 



72 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

man responsible for his actions, which 
necessarily spring out of his principles ; 
and thus this wretched theory which I 
am o|)posing, if left to work out its le- 
gitimate results, would undermine the 
foundations of human government and 
destroy the entire structure of human 
society. 

But it is a noteworthy fact that the 
warmest advocates of this delusive and 
dangerous opinion do not pretend to apply 
it except in man's relations to God. None 
are more unsparing than they in their 
denunciations of what they conceive to 
be his erroneous political belief, or his 
wrong views of the standard of integrity 
that should be observed in business trans- 
actions, or even his religious convictions 
when they differ from their own. If 
man is not responsible for his belief, there 
is nothing whatever to justify them in so 
persistently assailing those of us who 
hold that he is responsible ; since, ac- 
cording to their own notion, it is of no 



consequence what we believe, provided we 
are sincere ; and if he is responsible, 
what becomes of their shallow conceit 
that he is not responsible ? This alone is 
sufficient to condemn them ; for why are 
they so prompt to recognize man's re- 
sponsibility for his belief of the truth, 
save when they come to the infinitely im- 
portant truth contained in the Sacred 
Scriptures ? Does not their position con- 
firm the testimony of the Bible when it 
declares that ^' the carnal mind is enmity 
against God : for it is not subject to the 
laAv of God, neither indeed can be"?^ 
Does it not prove that they have taken 
counsel together '' against the Lord and 
against his anointed, saying. Let us break 
their bands asunder, and cast away their 
cords from us" ?^ Alas ! their astounding 
inconsistency in holding man responsible 
for his opinions to themselves, while 
stoutly denying his responsibility for un- 
belief towards Christ, only reveals a 

1 Eom. viii. 7. 2 pg ^j 3^ 

7 



74 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

guilty conscience full of fears, or a wicked 
purpose to tlirow the reins upon the neck 
of the transgressor and encourage him 
in a career of unrestrained sin. 

V. An argument from analogy is sug- 
gested by the admitted fact that man is 
made responsible for his belief by the 
physical laws of his being. He sees, for 
example, a white powder which he sin- 
cerely believes to be harmless ; but if it 
is arsenic, and he is rash enough to act 
upon his belief by swallowing it, his sin- 
cerity will not prevent excruciating pain, 
and probably death. An intelligent and 
conscientious physician may inform him 
that his continued dissipation will result 
in disease and drag him down prema- 
turely to the grave ; and although he 
may sincerely believe that his medical 
adviser is mistaken, his sincerity cannot 
avert the consequences of his folly and 
crime. He may be correctly told that a 
remedy has been discovered for some 
fearful plague which has laid its grasp 



man's sincerity cannot save him. 75 

upon liim ; but sincerely believing that 
liis informant is mistaken, and prefer- 
ring to follow tlie counsels of liis own 
judgment, lie may decline to act upon 
the testimony he has received, and yet 
his sincerity will not stay for a single 
moment the approach of the fell destroyer. 
He may be warned by friends that a ves- 
sel in which he intends to make a voyage 
is not seaworthy ; but sincerely believing 
that the Avarning is the expression of un- 
reasonable prejudice or unmanly fear, he 
may confidently set sail, and yet his sin- 
cerity cannot deliver him from going 
down with a shriek into the yawning 
depths when the storm is let loose in its 
fury upon his frail craft. Without citing 
other illustrations of a truth so obvious 
that none will have the hardihood to call 
it in question, it may be asked why a 
merciful God does not respect the sin- 
cerity of His creatures in such cases, and 
save them from the sufferings which they 
bring upon themselves. If it be replied 



76 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

that they violate certain fixed laws, and 
therefore receive the merited penalty, I 
answer that they also violate a certain 
and fixed law who refuse to believe the 
testimony of the Son of God; and we 
have already proved that the Almighty 
will no more interfere to arrest the pen- 
alty in one instance than in the other. 

No one can assert that the law of 
gravitation is more thoroughly estab- 
lished in the natural world than is the 
great law, as I here term it, of the spir- 
itual world, which says, " He that hath 
the Son hath life ; and he that hath not 
the Son of God hath not life."^ The 
glorious Being who ordained both in 
their different spheres possesses the same 
adorable and unchangeable perfections 
whether we view Him as the God of na- 
ture or of revelation; and those who 
imagine that because they are sincere 
they may with impunity reject or neglect 
the unalterable expression of His will, 

1 1 John V. 12. 



man's sincerity cannot save him. 77 

liowever made known, will surely dis- 
cover that they have been woefully de- 
ceived. It is childish, therefore, for the 
objector to cavil at the harshness of the 
doctrine I am advocating until he first 
finds fault with God for the facts that 
occur in our daily experience and obser- 
vation. If, however, he is disposed to 
insist that in the natural world man is 
responsible, not for his opinions, but for 
his acts, it is sufiicient to remind him of 
what I have already show^i, that it is 
impossible to hold religious opinions 
without an expression of them in acts of 
obedience or disobedience that at once 
place him among the friends or the foes 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

If any of the Hebrews on that terrible 
night of the passover in Egypt had sin- 
cerely believed that the blood of a slain 
lamb sprinkled on the door-posts of their 
houses could not save them from the 
stroke of the destroying angel, or that 
the Almighty was too merciful to inflict 



78 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the threatened vengeance, their belief 
would have certainly manifested itself in 
their conduct, and they would have cer- 
tainly perished with their enemies. If 
any of them, when bitten of the fiery 
serpents in the wilderness, had argued 
that there was no remedial or restorative 
powder in looking at a piece of brass, and 
hence had sincerely believed that there 
was more wisdom in expecting help from 
some other source, they w^ould have re- 
fused, of course, to obey the Divine di- 
rection ; and of course they would have 
miserably perished because of their un- 
belief, however sincere they might have 
been. 

VI. Another argument to prove man's 
responsibility for his belief might be de- 
rived from the constitution of the human 
mind. As I do not wish to extend this 
chapter to an undue length, I shall throw 
out only a hint or two, which, with the 
blessing of God, may be profitable to the 
awakened soul. Even the heathen phil- 



man's sincerity cannot save IIII\[. 79 

osophers of ancient times clearly per- 
ceived that the mind is the organ of 
truth, as the eye is the organ of vision 
and the ear the organ of hearing. The 
jaundiced eye can impart a sickly yellow 
appearance to the pure white snow, and 
the deaf ear is dull to the most entran- 
cing melody ; but, for all that, no one 
doubts that they were originally con- 
stituted to be the proper organs of sight 
and sound. And although it is written 
that " the wicked are estranged from the 
womb ; they go astray as soon as they 
be born, speaking lies,"^ yet they were 
created at first with reference to truth as 
much as to any other end of their ex- 
istence. Their minds have become sadly 
diseased and perverted from the use for 
which they were so wonderfully organ- 
ized ; but this fact proves their responsi- 
bility, because it is the introduction of 
sin which has wrought the change. 

A careful observation will convince 

1 Ps. Iviii. 3. 



80 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

you that the vast majority of men are so 
absorbed in their worldly pursuits and 
pleasures that they are profoundly in- 
different to religious truth ; or they are 
so entirely the slaves of prejudice that 
they will not impartially investigate it ; 
or they are so anxious to escape persecu- 
tion and reproach in an apostate world 
that they are not prepared to suffer for it ; 
or they are so blinded under the delusive 
influence of Satan that they do not per- 
ceive its divine beauty and inestimable 
value. In other words, it is manifest that 
they are led by the dispositions of our 
corrupt nature ; and surely for this they 
are responsible, if they are responsible 
for anything. But they turn away from 
the commands of God with contemptu-. 
ous unconcern, or with proud reliance 
upon their own wisdom, or wdth a fixed 
purpose to admit nothing as an article of 
faith which will abase them as helpless 
sinners at the cross of Calvary. 

Just here their guilt comes in ; for as 



man's sincerity cannot save HIxM. 81 

our Lord said of the unbelieving world, 
'^If I had not come and sj)oken unto 
them, they had not had sin ; but now 
they have no cloak [or, as it is in the 
margin, no excuse] for their sins."^ In 
His blessed grace. He did not ask those to 
whom He presented Himself as the prom- 
ised Messiah to receive Him without ex- 
hibiting His credentials, so to speak ; for 
He says, " If I do not the works of my 
Father, believe me not. But if I do, 
though ye believe not me, believe the 
works." ^ A few like Nicodemus recog- 
nized the validity of the credentials, and 
said to Him, " We know that thou art a 
teacher come from God : for no man can 
do these miracles that thou doest, except 
God be with him ; " ^ but the great mass, 
offended by His lowly apj)earance and 
soul-humbling doctrines, refused to give 
to His claims even a candid examination. 
The result was, they could not believe be- 
cause they would not; and they were 

1 John XV. 22. ^ j^j^^ ^ 37^ 38_ 8 j^j^^ iii. 2. 
F 



82 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

brought to a terrible account for their 
rejection of Christ, even when they 
thought they did God service in despis- 
ing His overtures of mercy. "Ye will 
not come to me/' was His sad complaint, 
" that ye might have life ;"^ and this ivill 
not^ which was the root of unbelief, as it 
still is, made them responsible for their 
opinions, however sincere their plea that 
they were unable to accept the evidences 
of His Messiahship. If God should com- 
mand us to look at a beautiful landscape 
which He had created to glorify Himself 
and to gratify us, and we should deliber- 
ately put out our eyes, our blindness 
would be no excuse for disobeying His 
requirement. And so if we have wronged 
our souls and injured our minds by sin 
until the wonderful organ of truth which 
he bestowed on man at first can no longer 
perform its proper functions, w^e have 
ourselves to blame for groping in dark- 
ness. 

' John V. 40. 



" But what is Truth ? 'Twas Pilate's question put 
To Truth itself, that deigned him no reply. 
And wherefore? Will not God impart His light 
To them that ask it? Freely : 'tis His joy, 
His glory, and His nature to impart. 
But to the proud, uncandid, insincere. 
Or negligent inquirer, not a spark." 

And now, dear reader, I leave what is 
here written to your reflections ; praying 
that (however imperfect the discussion of 
this great subject in these pages) the Lord 
will lead you to see the hollowness of 
Satan's crafty device when he would per- 
suade you that man is not responsible for 
his belief. Depend upon it, this is the 
devil's lie and not God's truth. Even 
under the Levitical law an ofiering was 
provided for sins of ignorance ; and in 
the Gospel of the grace of God it is writ- 
ten, " How shall we escape if we neglect 
so great salvation?"^ although we may 
be perfectly sincere in our neglect. The 
great Bacon has well said, ''Truth and 
goodness differ but as the print and seal ; 

1 Heb. ii. 3. 



84 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

for truth prints goodness/' and holiness 
is obedience to the truth. If man, there- 
fore, is responsible for anything, he is 
surely responsible for his opinions, since 
they necessarily determine whether his 
outward life is in accordance with truth 
and holiness or with error and unright- 
eousness. " God shall bring every work 
into judgment, with every secret thing, 
whether it be good, or whether it be evil.''^ 
" Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : 
for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 
he also reap."^ ^^O Lord, thou hast 
searched me, and known me. Thou 
knowest my down-sitting and mine up- 
rising, thou understandest my thought 
afar off. Thou compassest my path and 
my lying dow^n, and art acquainted with 
all my ways. For there is not a word in 
my tongue, but lo, O Loed, thou know- 
est it altogether."^ 

1 Eccles. xii. 14. ^ Gal. vi. 7. ^ Ps. cxxxix. 1-4. 



CHAPTER V. 

MAN'S RIGHTEOUSNESS CANNOT SAVE HIM. 

" For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going 
about to establish their own righteousness, have not 
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." 
—Romans x. 3. 



Ct^ 



(o^^HE first question to be settled here 
%\\ is tlie meaning of the term rightr 
Sc^C eoiisness. Some idea of the im- 

^G portance of the question may be 
gathered from the fact that the same 
word, which is used three times in the 
passage j)laced at the head of this chap- 
ter, occurs ninety-two times in the New 
Testament, and is found thirty-six times 
in the Epistle to the Romans. Many in- 
quirers after the way of eternal life are 
kept in darkness and uncertainty from a 
failure to see the signification of the lan- 
guage employed by the Holy Ghost in 

8 85 



86 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the Sacred Scriptures. They might often 
be spared weary months of struggling, 
and feebleness in all their subsequent 
walk, if distinctly taught at the very be- 
ginning of their religious experience the 
precise import of such expressions as re- 
demption, regeneration, repentance, faith, 
grace, justification, adoption, sanctifica- 
tion, and righteousness. 

The last of these it is my purpose to 
notice at present, with the hope, through 
God's blessing, of leading my readers to 
see that their own good character and 
conduct cannot save them. The word 
which is so often translated " righteous- 
ness" in the Bible is defined in Robin- 
son's Greek and English Lexicon of the 
New Testament as follow^s : " The doing 
or being what is just or right ; and when 
spoken of character, conduct, and the 
like, it is the being just as one should 
be." So the word translated righteous is 
explained, when applied to character or 
conduct, as meaning "just as it should be ; " 



man's righteousness cannot save. 87 

and hence a righteous man ^^is strictly 
one who does right." In the lexicons 
of Classic Greek the word which is trans- 
lated righteous is rendered " observant of 
the rules of right, upright, in all duties 
both to gods and men." In the He- 
brew the word translated righteousness 
comes from a verb which means " to be 
right, straight;" and hence in a moral 
sense it is " rectitude, right, righteousness, 
what is right and just, such as it should 
be ;" and a righteous person is said to be 
one who is " obedient to divine laws." 
In English, Webster says righteousness 
means " purity of heart and rectitude of 
life ; conformity of heart and life to the 
divine law." The term righteous he de- 
fines as "just, accordant to divine law. 
Apj)lied to persons, it denotes one who is 
holy in heart, and observant of the di- 
vine commands in practice; as a right- 
eous man. Applied to things, it denotes 
consonance to the divine will or to justice ; 
as a righteous act." The word rights he 



88 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

says, means "conformity to the will of 
God, or to his law, the perfect standard 
of truth and justice. In a literal sense, 
onght is a straight line of conduct, and 
wrong a crooked one." 

According to these various authorities, 
righteousness is the state or quality of 
being righteous, and righteous is that 
wdiich is right, and right implies some 
rule, standard, or test to distinguish it 
from wrong. If there were no such rule, 
it is obvious that right and wrong would 
lose their meaning, and the difference be- 
tween them would instantly cease to exist. 
Whether this rule is supposed to be found 
in the decisions of conscience or of cus- 
tom, of reason or of revelation, its au- 
thority is instinctively and universally 
recognized. Not only the best but the 
worst of men pronounce certain acts to be 
right and other acts to be wrong, and 
thus show that they have before their 
minds, it may be unconsciously, some rule 
to which the right acts are conformed, 



man's righteousness cannot save. 89 

and whicli the Avrong acts have violated. 
A few infidel writers like Hobbes have 
maintained that the only foundation of 
right and wrong is the civil law ; and a 
few like Rousseau have ventured to affirm 
that all the morality of our actions lies 
in the judgment w^e ourselves form of 
them. But even these reckless sceptics 
confess that there is a rule, however low 
and imperfect, that must decide whether 
our conduct is worthy of commendation 
or of censure. Although in their view 
that is right which is conformed to civil 
law, or which meets the approval of our 
own judgment, still they acknowledge the 
existence and power of a rule to deter- 
mine what should be done and what 
should be left undone. 

Now if it be true that God has made 
known in the Sacred Scriptures His will 
concerning the way in which He would 
have men feel and think and speak and 
act, it is certain that this revealed will is 
the supreme rule of duty. Of course, a 



90 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Being wlio " is righteous in all his ways 
and holy in all his works''^ cannot enjoin 
us to be or to do anything in the slightest 
degree improper or unbecoming in the re- 
lations we sustain to Him and to our fel- 
low-creatures ; and as "the law of the 
Lord is perfect/'^ it will at once be ad- 
mitted that no higher rule is possible as 
the standard of right. Webster is cor- 
rect, therefore, in defining righteousness 
as " conformity of heart and life to the 
divine law." The law of God is like a 
plumb-line (if I may so speak), let down 
from heaven to test the uprightness of 
our character and the rectitude of our 
conduct ; it is like an exact measure ap- 
plied both to our inward and outward 
life to discover whether it is according to 
holiness ; it is like light shining into the 
chambers of our souls to reveal their real 
condition. If any are perfectly obedient 
in every respect to the requirements of the 
law^, they are righteous, and the obedience 

1 r.s. cxlv. 17. ^ Ps. xix. 7. 



man's righteousness cannot save. 91 

they render constitutes their righteous- 
ness. 

The phrase "righteousness of God/' 
which frequently occurs in the inspired 
Epistles, next demands our consideration. 
We find the Apostle writing to the Ro- 
mans, " I am not ashamed of the gospel 
of Christ, ... for therein is the right- 
eousness of God revealed from faith to 
faith." ^ Again, "The righteousness of 
God without the law is manifested, being 
witnessed by the law and the prophets ; 
even the righteousness of God which is 
by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and 
upon all them that believe."^ Again, 
" He hath made him to be sin for us, who 
knew no sin ; that we might be made the 
righteousness of God in him."^ Again, 
he expresses an earnest desire to be found 
in Christ; not having, he says, "mine 
own righteousness, which is of the law, 
but that which is through the faith of 
Christ, the righteousness which is of God 

1 Kom. i. 16, 17. ^ ^^j^. iii. 21, 22. ^ 2 Cor. v. 21. 



92 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

by faith." ^ Simon Peter also sends his 
sahitation ^Ho them that have obtained 
like precious faith with us through the 
righteousness of God and our Saviour 
Jesus Christ."^ 

The term righteousness, when applied 
to God, does not so much refer to any one 
attribute as it denotes the perfection of 
His nature and sets forth the fact that 
He is most holy in Himself and most 
just in all His dealings with His crea- 
tures. The righteousness of God as used 
in the passages just quoted is understood 
by some writers to mean nothing more 
than God's method of justification ; but 
that they are mistaken in their view^ is 
evident, first, because the Holy Ghost 
would have said God's method of justifi- 
cation if this had been the thought in 
His mind ; and, secondly, because no man 
can be justified until there is a righteous- 
ness that precedes as the ground upon 
which the sentence of justification is pro- 

iPhil.iii. 9. 2 2 Pet. i. 1. 



man's eighteousness cannot save. 93 

nounced. Wordsworth well says, " This 
significant phrase, the righteousness of 
God, is not to be lowered, weakened, and 
impaired, so as to mean only the method 
of justification by which God acquits and 
justifies mankind." Other writers tell 
us that the expression means " the right- 
eousness which God gives and which He 
approves ; '' but while this is the truth, as 
far as it goes, it is not the whole truth. 
God might give and a]3prove a creature- 
righteousness such as Adam had in the 
garden of Eden, and such as angels pos- 
sess in the paradise of heaven ; but there 
is something better and nobler than this 
in store for the redeemed sinner. 

" The righteous Lord loveth righteous- 
ness;"^ and His love for it is so great 
that when He saw our utter destitution 
and extreme wretchedness, in His infinite 
kindness and amazing condescension He 
gave us His own. He gave Christ, His 
co-equal, co-eternal, and only -begotten 
1 Ps. xi. 7. 



94 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Son, who was and is for evermore the 
true God in our nature, and who not 
only furnished the most illustrious ex- 
hibition of His Father's righteousness the 
universe has ever seen, but by His perfect 
obedience to all the demands of the di- 
vine law, and by His endurance of its 
penalty in the room and for the justifica- 
tion of His people, becomes their right- 
eousness; and this righteousness is the 
righteousness of God Himself. It is that 
kind of righteousness which is worthy of 
admittance into His presence ; and He 
imputes to believers the righteousness of 
His Son, which is only another name for 
His own righteousness. Hence we read 
such astonishing language as this : " Do 
ye not know that the saints shall judge 
the world ?"^ "Know ye not that we 
shall judge angels?"^ "He that over- 
cometh, and keepeth my works unto the 
end, to him will I give power over the 
nations : and he shall rule them with a 

I 1 Cor. vi. 2. '^ 1 Cor. vi. 3. 



man's righteousness cannot save. 95 

rod of iron ; as the vessels of a potter 
shall they be broken to shivers : even as 
I received of my Father."^ '^ Him that 
overcometh will I make a pillar in the 
temple of my God, and he shall go no 
more out : and I will write upon him 
the name of my God, and the name of 
the city of my God, which is new Jeru- 
salem, w^hich Cometh down out of heaven 
from my God ; and I will write upon 
him my new name."^ "To him that 
overcometh will I grant to sit with me in 
my throne, even as I also overcame, and 
am set down with my Father in his 
throne."^ In other words, the righteous- 
ness of God gives a title to those who 
are saved to be associated with "the 
Prince of the kings of the earth "^ in the 
most endeared intimacy and in places of 
highest dignity, which would be im- 
possible if they did not stand upon the 
ground of a perfect righteousness before 

^ Eev. ii. 26, 27. ' Eev. iii. 12. 

^Kev.iii. 21. -^ Eev. i. 5. 



96 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the Father, arrayed as it were in the robe 
of His own unsullied perfections. 

The righteousness of God, then, is an 
expression which has a broader and deeper 
significance than that given to it by those 
who explain it to mean simply God's 
method of justification or the righteous- 
ness of which God is the author and 
approver. The law demands righteous- 
ness ; and as w^e cannot meet the high de- 
mand, grace gives righteousness ; and as 
it is a gift, it is bestowed in a manner 
worthy of God who gives us His own 
righteousness. Nothing less than this 
could satisfy the desires of His loving 
heart, and nothing less than this could 
sufiice to admit us into His blessed pres- 
ence. If the soul has upon it the faint- 
est stain of sin, it must be excluded for 
ever from His glorious dwelling-place ; 
for " there shall in no wise enter into it 
anything that defileth,"^ and only those 
who are righteous in the sense that God 

1 Eev. xxi. 27. 



man's righteousness cannot save. 97 

Himself is righteous can appear for a mo- 
ment in the dazzling splendour of His ho- 
liness. Hence, amid the untold wonders 
of His creation and providence the most 
wonderful thing He has ever done is to 
impute a Divine righteousness to the be- 
lieving sinner who can say, with perfect 
confidence : " Holy Father ! there is no 
difference now between Thy righteous- 
ness and mine ; for I am made the very 
righteousness of God in Christ." I need 
not add that this righteousness is no less 
enduring and immutable than is the self- 
existent and unchangeable nature of the 
Almighty ; and never, never can it be 
torn from those to whom it has been 
reckoned as the ground of their justifica^ 
tion until the eternal Jehovah shall cease 
to exist or be hurled from His throne. 
9 a 




CHAPTEE VI. 

MAN'S RIGHTEOUSNESS CANNOT SAVE HIM, 



GNORANCE of God's righteous- 
ness is declared by the Holy Ghost 
to be as fatal and soul-destroying 
as the grossest wickedness, because 
it led the Jews and it leads others to go 
about the yain attempt to establish their 
own righteousness; and therefore they 
refuse to submit themselves unto the 
righteousness of God. You will observe 
that He does not charge the Israelites 
with insincerity, but only with ignorance ; 
and yet practically one was as ruinous to 
the soul as the other. When our Lord in 
His sermon on the mount said to His 
disciples, - Except your righteousness 

98 



man's eighteousness cankot save. 99 

shall exceed the righteousness of the 
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case 
enter into the kingdom of heaven/'^ He 
did not accuse the scribes and Pharisees 
of hypocrisy as the reason for asserting 
that we must have a better righteousness 
than theirs, if we would enter into the 
kingdom of heaven. Some of them, we 
know, were hypocrites, but there is not 
the slightest authority for saying that all 
of them were practiced and wilful im- 
postors. Saul of Tarsus, for example, 
tells us he was perfectly sincere in his re- 
ligion when he was a Pharisee, and verily 
thought with himself that he ought to do 
many things contrary to the name of Je- 
sus of Xazareth ; but he afterwards in- 
forms us that he did these things " igno- 
rantly in unbelief."^ Surely there were 
others equally sincere ; and I have no 
doubt that among the Jews of that day 
there were many who attained a height 
of creature-righteousness which has never 

i Matt. V. 20. 2 1 Tim. i. 13. 



100 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

been surpassed in the history of the 
world. 

They counted six hundred and thirteen 
precepts that were binding on man, divid- 
ing them into three hundred and sixty- 
five prohibitions and two hundred and 
forty-eight commands, and were scrupu- 
lously exact in striving to observe every 
one of them. They read the Scriptures 
diligently ; they prayed constantly ; they 
kept the Sabbath strictly ; they contrib- 
uted systematically to support the services 
of God's house ; they adorned themselves 
with all the beauties of a faultless mo- 
rality and maintained an incorruptible 
integrity in their social relations; but 
even then our Lord, who can neither 
deceive nor be deceived, solemnly an- 
nounced that their righteousness utterly 
failed to procure for them a title to the 
heavenly inheritance ; " for they, being 
ignorant of God's righteousness and going 
about to establish their own righteous- 
ness, have not submitted themselves unto 



man's righteousness cannot save. 101 

the righteousness of God." Paul, too, 
assures us that, " touching the righteous- 
ness which is in the law/' he was blame- 
less before he became a Christian ; and 
yet this boasted blamelessness could not 
save him, but afterwards was regarded by 
him as sinfulness. If, then, the testi- 
mony of Jesus Christ and of the Holy 
Spirit speaking by the Apostle is to be 
believed on any subject, it is certain that 
a creature-righteousness could not save 
the Jews, and it is no less certain that it 
cannot save the Gentiles. 

It has been the great purpose of Je- 
hovah from the beginning, I may say, to 
teach this fundamental truth to mankind, 
for He stated and rehearsed it as dis- 
tinctly before the coming of the Saviour 
into the world as He did afterwards. 
Thus when our first parents plucked the 
forbidden fruit, we are told, " the eyes of 
them both were opened, and they knew 
that they were naked, and they sewed 
fig-leaves together, and made themselves 

9 * 



102 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

aprons."^ The yiolated law instantly 
thundered its curse against them : " Thou 
shalt surely die ;"^ but grace sweetly 
spoke in the promise of the conquering 
seed, and then it is added, " Unto Adam 
also and to his wife did the Lord God 
make coats of skins and clothed them."^ 
What have we here but the insufficiency 
of man's righteousness as well as the 
precious truth of Divine righteousness 
taught in symbol? The attempt which 
Adam made with his apron of fig-leaves 
to cover his nakedness utterly failed, and 
hence he and his wife hid themselves 
from the presence of the Loed God among 
the trees of the garden ; but the robe 
which Jehovah provided, and which told 
the story of the shedding of blood (as 
the appointed victim had to be slain be- 
fore it could be presented), w^as Divinely 
perfect in its way ; and when once re- 
ceived we read no longer of the sinner 
hiding from the view and voice of his 

1 Gen. iii. 7. ^ q^^ i^^ ^^^ 3 (:jg„^ Yu. 21. 



man's righteousness cannot save. 103 

Father. Again, in the next chapter, we 
learn that " in process of time it came to 
j)ass, that Cain brought of the fruit of 
the ground an offering unto the Lord. 
And Abel, he also brought of the first- 
lings of his flock and of the fat thereof. 
And the Lord had respect unto Abel and 
to his offering : but unto Cain and to his 
oflfering he had not respect. And Cain 
was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 
And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art 
thou wroth, and why is thy countenance 
fallen ? If thou doest well [that is, If 
thou offerest properly], shalt thou not be 
accepted? And if thou doest not well 
[offerest not properly], sin lieth at the 
door."^ Here we have two altars, the 
one laden with beautiful fruits and fra- 
grant flowers, the product of the worship- 
per's honourable toil, and the expression, 
no doubt, of his grateful and sincere 
homage, while the other is dripping with 
the blood of a dead lamb. The differ- 

1 Gen. iv. 3-7. 



104 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

ence between the t^yo brothers did not 
consist in the superiority of either by 
nature, but in the sacrifices which they 
presented. The one occupied the ground 
of man's righteousness in his worshijD, 
and hence was rejected ; the other occu- 
pied the ground of Divine righteousness, 
and consequently was accepted ; for the 
Holy Ghost informs us that ^'by faith 
Abel offered unto God a more excellent 
sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained 
witness that he was righteous, God tes- 
tifying of his gift."^ The offerer and 
the offering were identified, and stood or 
fell together, God regarding the former 
in the light of the latter, and proclaim- 
ing, even in that early age, that man's 
righteousness cannot save him. 

It would be impossible, without writing 
a book nearly as large as the Bible itself, 
to give all the statements and illustrations 
of this essential doctrine found in the 
Scriptures, for the word of God from 

1 Heb. xi. 4. 



man's righteousness cannot save. 105 

first to last views man as hopelessly ruined 
in himself, and sets forth in every variety 
of form his need of a better, even of a 
Divine, righteousness to enter into life. 
It is true, Moses said to the Hebrews in 
the wilderness, " It shall be our right- 
eousness, if we observe to do all these com- 
mandments before the Lord our God, as 
he hath commanded us;"^ but the little 
word "if'' is very important in this con- 
nection, and the inspired history shows 
that they did not observe to do any of 
the commandments before the Lord their 
God as He commanded them. When 
they came to Sinai under the gentle con- 
duct of grace that bare them on eagles' 
wings and promised to make them a king- 
dom of priests and a holy nation, " all 
the people answered together, and said. 
All that the Lord hath spoken we will 
do ;"^ and yet scarcely had the rash vow 
proceeded from their lips before they 
were found dancing and boAving in idola- 

^ Dent. vi. 25. '^ Exod. xix. 8. 



106 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

trous worship around a golden calf. Alas 
poor man ! such is ever the end of his 
effort to obtain a righteousness of his 
own : defeat, discomfiture, disgrace, is the 
invariable result. Hence we hear the 
Psalmist exclaiming : ''I will go in the 
strength of the Lord God : I will make 
mention of thy righteousness, even of 
thine onty."^ ^^Who shall ascend into 
the hill of the Lokd ? or who shall stand 
in his holy place ? . . . He shall receive 
the blessing from the Lord, and right- 
eousness from the God of his salvation."^ 
" Mercy and truth are met together ; 
righteousness and peace have kissed each 
other. Truth shall spring out of the 
earth ; and righteousness shall look down 
from heaven."^ By the mouth of His 
Prophets the Almighty says, " O Israel, 
thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me 
is thine help."^ " Their righteousness is 
of me, saith the Lord."^ "And this is 

1 Ps. Ixxi. 16. 2 Ps. xxiv. 3, 5. ^ Ps. Ixxxv. 10, 11. 
* Hos. xiii. 9. ^ Isa. liv. 17. 



man's righteousness cannot save. 107 

liis name whereby he shall be called, 
The Lord our Righteousness."^ 

The Old Testament, then, clearly shows 
how and where righteousness is to be ob- 
tained ; and in every instance it entirely 
excludes man's righteousness as the 
ground upon which God pronounces the 
sentence of justification. " All our right- 
eousnesses, " it declares, " are as filthy 
rags"^ (not all our wickednesses merely, 
for this any one is ready to admit, but 
all our righteousnesses are as rags, nay, 
filthy rags), and '^he that trusteth in his 
own heart is a fool."^ 

Even the most illustrious saints whose 
S23lendid achievements are recorded in its 
Images are held up by the Holy Ghost in 
illustration, not of the value, but of the 
worthlessness, of creature- righteousness as 
the means of gaining acceptance with the 
Holy One of Israel. " For what saith 
the scripture? Abraham believed God, 
and it [his -believing God] was counted 

1 Jer. xxiii. 6. "^ Isa. Ixiv. 6. ^ Prov. xxviii. 26. 



108 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

unto liim for righteousness."^ '' Even as 
David also describeth the blessedness of 
the man unto whom God imputeth right- 
eousness without works." ^ To this must 
be added the testimony of the self-same 
Spirit in the New Testament, who says, 
" To him that worketh not, but believeth 
on him that justifieth the ungodly, his 
faith is counted for righteousness."^ 
Again, he speaks of righteousness not as 
a reward fairly earned, but as a gift freely 
bestowed : " For if by one man's offence 
death reigned by one ; much more they 
which receive abundance of grace and of 
the gift of righteousness shall reign in 
life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as 
by the offence of one judgment came 
upon all men to condemnation ; even so 
by the righteousness of one the free gift 
came upon all men [all united to Christ] 
unto justification of life."^ Again: 
^^What shall we say then? That the 

^ Kom. iv. 3. ^ Eom. iv. 6. 

3 Kom. iv. 5. * Rom. v. 17, 18. 



man's righteousness cannot save. 109 

Gentiles, which followed not after right- 
eousness, have attained to righteousness, 
even the ri2:hteousness which is of faith. 
But Israel, which follow^ed after the law 
of righteousness, hath not attained to the 
law of righteousness. Wherefore ? Be- 
cause they sought it not by faith, but as 
it were by the works of the law."^ 
Again : " After that the kindness and 
love of God our Saviour toward man ap- 
peared, not by works of righteousness 
which we have done, but according to his 
mercy he saved us, by the washing of re- 
generation and renewing of the Holy 
Ghost ; which he shed on us abundantly 
through Jesus Christ, our Saviour ; that 
being justified by his grace, we should be 
made heirs according to the hope of eter- 
nal life."^ 

It is useless, however, to quote other 
passages bearing the same testimony, be- 
cause if my readers bow to the authority 
of God's word they are already convinced 

1 Eom. ix. 30-32. ^ ^it. iii. 4-7. 

]0 



110 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

by what has been written ; and if they 
refuse to accept that word as true, it would 
ayail nothing to quote the whole Bible. 
It is certain that there is not a line in the 
book in conflict with the testimony here 
given ; and hence it is equally certain 
that man's righteousness cannot save him. 
It is true "that faith without works is 
dead ; ''^ but this is not saying that works 
save ; or that faith and works put to- 
gether save the soul, for this would make 
faith itself a work. If it be true that 
faith without works is dead, do not forget 
that works without faith are also dead. 
" What doth it profit, my brethren," 
writes James, " though a man say he hath 
faith, and have not works? Can faith 
save him V^ ^ What doth it profit, my 
brethren, though a man say he hath ten 
thousand a year, and have it not ? Can 
his saying it do him any good ? Depend 
ujDon it, Paul and James speak the same 
things ; for it is one Spirit who speaks 

^ James ii. 20. '^ James ii. 14. 



man's righteousness cannot save. Ill 

through them both. Paul speaks of a 
real possession of faith ; James of a mere 
profession of faith. Paul sj)eaks of a 
faith that justifies us before God; James 
of a faith that justifies us in the sight of 
men. Paul speaks of an inward principle ; 
James of its active development. Paul 
speaks of a hidden life ; James of its out- 
ward manifestation. Paul speaks of a 
^' faith which worketh by love/'^ and so 
does James; and hence these two honoured 
servants of the Lord are in perfect accord, 
only they view^ the same landscape from 
different points, and are fighting the same 
foe of leo'alism with their backs to each 
other. Both of them join all the holy men 
of God who " spake as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost," ^ in solemnly declar- 
ing that righteousness is the gift of grace, 
that is, of God's unmerited favour; for 
" by grace ye are saved,"^^'and if by grace, 
then it is no more of works : otherwise 
grace is no more grace. But if it be of 

1 Gal. V. G. 2 2 Pet. i. 21. ^ Eph. ii. 5. 



112 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

works, then it is no more grace : other- 
wise work is no more work."^ 

II. Keeping in mind that righteous- 
ness, when applied to man, signifies the 
state or condition of being right accord- 
ing to the infallible judgment of God's 
law, a moment's reflection will show that 
we can never be saved in virtue of our 
own good character and conduct. The 
Holy Spirit tells us that " as many as are 
of the works of the law are under the 
curse : for it is written, Cursed is every 
one that continueth not in all things 
which are written in the book of the law 
to do them."^ If, therefore, a man ex- 
pects to be saved by means of his well- 
doing, it is obvious that he must not only 
profess to do, or try to do, right, but he 
must actually do, and continue to do, not 
only some things, but all things, which 
are written in the book of the law. If, 
however, he has failed to do right, and, 
on the other hand, has done wrong, it is 

1 Kom. xi. 6. 2 Q^i m 10^ 



man's righteousness cannot save. 113 

no less obvious that he cannot be saved 
by his doing, whatever other ground of 
hope may suggest itself to his mind. 
" Master/' said a certain lawyer to our 
Saviour, " what shall I do to inherit eter- 
nal life? He said unto him, What is 
written in the law ? How readest thou ? 
And he answering, said. Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, 
and with all thy mind ; and thy neigh- 
bour as thyself. And he said unto him, 
Thou hast answered right : this do, and 
thou shalt live."^ Those, then, and only 
those, who can truthfully assert that they 
have always loved God with all the facul- 
ties of their being, and their fellow-men 
as themselves, may claim to be righteous, 
and expect eternal life on the ground of 
their own righteousness. But what shall 
we say when we find it written in the 
Word of Truth, " There is none right- 
eous, no not one,"^ "for all have sinned, 

1 Luke X. 25-28. 2 j^q^i, y^i 10. 

1 * H 



114 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

and come short of the glory of God"?^ 
Clearly, the only possible conclusion is 
that reached by the Apostle when he 
argues, " Therefore, by the deeds of the 
law there shall no flesh be justified in 
his sight: for by the law is the know- 
ledge of sin/'^ 

It will not remove the difiiculty a hair's- 
breadth to repent and promise to abstain 
in the future from any violation of the 
law ; for if such a promise could be kept 
for a day or an hour, could it atone for 
past transgressions? Suppose that a 
criminal, arrested after repeated offences 
running through a long course of years, 
and put upon his trial and convicted, 
and asked by the judge if he had any- 
thing to say why sentence should not be 
pronounced against him, could only reply 
that he was sorry he had committed the 
crimes, and would hereafter conduct him- 
self as a good citizen. Could such a plea 
be accepted as vindicating the majesty of 

1 Eom. iii. 23. =^ Kom. iii. 20. 



MAN^S RIGHTEOUSNESS CANNOT SAVE. 115 

violated law or as satisfying the claims of 
insulted justice? But the sinner has 
been going on all his lifetime breaking 
the law of God with every breath, and at 
every beat of the pulse ; and manifestly 
it is the silliest delusion to expect that he 
will be acquitted and pronounced right- 
eous before the high tribunal of heaven 
simj)ly because he has undertaken at 
length to perform the duties he was re- 
quired to perform from the first. But, 
alas! his efforts to keep the law in its 
true intent will be as futile as his hope of 
acceptance on the ground of his own 
works. " Thy commandment," says the 
Psalmist, "is exceeding broad ;"^ audit 
sweeps over the whole extent of our 
being, including the thoughts and emo- 
tions as well as the words and deeds. 
Our Lord, who knew the meaning of the 
law, declares that "whosoever looketh 
on a woman to lust after her hath com- 
mitted adultery with her already in his 

1 Ps. cxix. 96. 



116 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

heart/' ^ and the Spirit declares that 
" whosoever hateth his brother/' though 
the hand may not be raised nor anger 
gleam from the eye, "is a murderer,"^ 
" Wherefore, then, seryeth the law ? It 
was added because of transgressions, till 
the seed should come to whom the prom- 
ise was made."^ "Moreover, the law 
entered that the offence might abound."^ 
It was never designed to give life nor to 
be a rule of life to a sinner with the ex- 
pectation that he would keep it, but its 
ministry is to penetrate the soul like the 
sunlight streaming into a dark room to 
reveal the dust and defilement that had 
remained concealed. Hence he who has 
been truly awakened, and who seeks to be 
conformed to the law, invariably finds 
that it keeps ahead of his most earnest 
strivings, discovering impurities and iniq- 
uities of which he had never dreamed 
before, and often wringing from him the 

1 Matt. V. 28. 2 1 jojjn jij 15 

3 Gal. iii. 19. * Kom. v. 20. 



man's righteousness cannot save. 117 

cry of anguish, " O wretched man that 
I am! who shall deliver me from the 
body of this death?"' "If we/' says 
the Apostle John, speaking for himself 
and all his brethren — " If we say that we 
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the 
truth is not in us."^ "Whosoever shall 
keep the whole law, and yet offend in one 
point, he is guilty of all ; "^ but " in many 
things we offend all,"^ and therefore it 
is sheer madness to claim that man's 
righteousness can save him, because he 
has no righteousness, and never will have 
any, of his own. If, however, any are dis- 
posed to argue that, notwithstanding their 
im]3erfections, God will be merciful, and 
bestow eternal life for the sake of the 
good they have done, you observe that 
they shift the ground of their hope from 
their own doings, and really admit that 
their righteousness cannot save them. 
III. The work of Christ shows con- 

1 Eom. vii. 24. 2 i j^\,^ i g. 

^ James ii. 10. * James iii. 2. 



118 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

clvisively tliat we need a better righteous- 
ness tlian we ourselves can render ; " for 
if there had been a law given which 
could have given life, verily righteous- 
ness should have been by the law;"^ 
and " if righteousness come by the law, 
then Christ is dead in vain."^ Yes : he 
who relies for salvation upon his own 
works defiantly sets his opinion in oppo- 
sition to the eternal counsel of Jehovah, 
and boldly declares that the awful scene 
on Calvary, when the tender heart of the 
immaculate and incarnate One was broken 
by reproach upon the cross, was altogether 
unnecessary. Every one must see, then, 
at a glance, the gross inconsistency of 
professing to believe the Bible, and, at 
the same time, denying the necessity of 
the atonement ; for Christ and His cross 
form the key to unlock the meaning of 
the Scriptures, and constitute the all- 
pervading theme of its sacred pages. 
They exhibit in every possible form of 

1 Gal. iii. 21. ^ (^^^^^ jj^ 21. 



man's righteousness cannot save. 119 

expression the Divine person and media- 
torial work of Christ Jesus, " who, being 
in the form of God, thought it not rob- 
bery to be equal with God : but made 
himself of no reputation, and took upon 
him the form of a servant, and was made 
in the likeness of men : and being found 
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, 
and became obedient unto death, even 
the death of the cross. Wherefore God 
also hath highly exalted him, and given 
him a name which is above every name : 
that at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and 
things in earth, and things under the 
earth; and that every tongue should 
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the 
glory of God the Father."^ Whoever, 
in proud or ignorant dependence upon 
his good character and conduct, refuses 
to confess that most worthy name which 
raises the anthems of heaven to their 
highest notes, will certainly find his 

iPhil. ii. G-ll. 



120 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

boasted righteousness a foundation of 
sand when the Lord '^ariseth to shake 
terribly the earth." ^ 

Dear reader! be persuaded, "before 
that great and notable day of the Lord 
come/'^ to accept the perfect and prof- 
fered righteousness of Christ, which alone 
can stand the inspection of Him whose 
eyes are as a flame of fire. I do not ask 
you to " give your heart to God/' or to 
" enter into covenant with God that you 
will serve him/' as the means of obtain- 
ing His favour, for this is wretched ad- 
vice, although you often hear it urged. 
God is already favourable, and in His 
infinite love is holding out to your im- 
mediate acceptance a Divine righteous- 
ness, — ^yea,His own righteousness, — as the 
ground of your instant, complete, and 
eternal justification. Without this you 
may unite with any church, or with all 
the churches, on the face of the earth; 
you may be baptized in any mode, or in 

1 Isa. ii. 19. 2 A^.ts ii. 20. 



man's righteousness cannot save. 121 

all the modes ever practiced; you may 
receive confirmation at the hands of the 
most distinguished ecclesiastical digni- 
tary in the world ; you may regularly 
partake of the Lord's Supper in the most 
stately cathedral and amid the most im- 
posing ceremonies ; you may bestow all 
your goods to feed the poor, and give 
your body to be burned ; and after all 
remain the same condemned and ruined 
sinner you are at present. But now the 
righteousness of God which is by faith 
of Jesus Christ is unto all, that is, it is 
offered to all, and it is actually upon all 
them that believe. The righteousness 
of God ! What a wonderful truth ! Bless- 
ed be His name, the worst need nothing 
better than this, but the best can do with 
nothing less. While such a righteousness 
is so generously pressed upon dying men, 
sad indeed it is to think of the vast mul- 
titudes who, '' being ignorant of God's 
righteousness, and going about to estab- 
lish their own righteousness, have not 
11 



122 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

submitted themselves unto the righteous- 
ness of God." I would not undervalue, 
in the slightest degree, the real worth of 
morality in its relation to human society, 
but do not, I beseech you, put it in the 
place of righteousness; for the former 
may shine in its brightest glory without 
receiving one ray from the latter to min- 
gle with its radiance. " Covet earnestly 
the best gifts : and yet show I unto you 
a more excellent way."^ 

1 1 Cor. xii. 31. 




CHAPTER VII. 

CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 

" For Christ is the end of tiie law for righteousness to every- 
one that believeth."— R03IAXS x. 4. 

[[SAVING proved by the testimony 
of God, first, that man needs sal- 
vation, second, that his sincerity 
cannot save him, and, third, that 
his righteousness cannot save him, it may 
be asked by my reader. How then can 
he be saved ? The reply to this inquiry 
has already been given incidentally in 
the passages of Scripture that were quoted 
for another purj)Ose ; but in the 23resent 
chapter I ask your attention to the special 
discussion of a subject which is beyond 
all comj)arison the most important that 
can engage our regard. We know not 
how soon death may come to summon us 

123 



124 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

away to our unclianging destiny beyond 
the grave, nor how soon the Lord may 
come to gather His people to Himself as 
a preliminary step to the infliction of 
terrific judgments upon the inhabitants 
of the earth ; and surely every reasonable 
man must see that the question of his 
salvation should be distinctly, definitely, 
and intelligently settled without delay. 
Blessed be God, it may be settled in- 
stantly ; for according to the same unim- 
peachable testimony which has estab- 
lished the propositions thus far advanced, 
" Christ is the end of the law for right- 
eousness to every one that believeth." 

The precise meaning of the terms in 
this statement is the first point that de- 
mands our notice. The word translated 
end is used in the New Testament forty- 
one times. The corresponding verb is 
sometimes rendered " to accomplish," 
sometimes " to finish,'' sometimes " to ful- 
fil," and sometimes " to perform." When, 
therefore, it is said that Christ is the end 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 125 

of the law, we may understand that as 
the object of its tj]^es and the subject of 
its predictions He accomplished all that 
it announced as needful to be done ; or 
that He finished its career in its bearing 
uj)on our salvation ; or that He fulfilled 
its requisitions, its symbols, and its cere- 
monies ; or that He performed the work 
which it exacted as essential to the de- 
liverance of the sinner from its curse. 
But clearer light will be thrown upon the 
signification of the word if we will in- 
quire for a moment how it is employed in 
other portions of the sacred volume. For 
example, we read in Matthew, " Ye shall 
be hated of all men for my name's sake ; 
but he that endureth to the end shall be 
saved." ^ ^^This gospel of the kingdom 
shall be preached in all the world for a 
witness unto all nations ; and then shall 
the end come."^ In Mark we read, ^^If 
Satan rise up against himself, and be di- 
vided, he cannot stand, but hath an end."^ 

1 Matt. X. 22. 2 ]yjatt^ xxiv. 14. ^ j^j^pk iii. 26. 
11- 



\ 



126 THE WAY MADE PLAIX. 

"When ye shall hear of wars and ru- 
mours of wars, be ye not troubled : for 
such things must needs be ; but the end 
shall not be yet."^ In Luke we read, 
" He shall reign over the house of Jacob 
for ever ; and of his kingdom there shall 
be no end."^ '' For I say unto you, that 
this that is written must yet be accom- 
plished in me, And he was reckoned 
among the transgressors : for the things 
concerning me have an end."^ In John 
we read, " Haying loved his own which 
were in the world, he loved them unto 
the end."^ In Komans, "The end of 
those things is death. But now being 
made free from sin, and become servants 
to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, 
and the end everlasting life."^ In Cor- 
inthians, " Waiting for the coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ : who shall also con- 
firm you unto the end."^ "But every 
man in his own order :■ Christ the first 

1 Mark xiii. 7. ^ l^^i^^ i 33^ 3 l^^i^^ ^xii. 37. 

4 John xiii. 1. ^ Rom. vi. 21, 22. « 1 Cor. i. 7, 8. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 127 

fruits; afterward they that are Christ's 
at his coming. Then cometh the end, 
when he shall have delivered up the 
kingdom to God, even the Father."^ 

These quotations are sufficient to illus- 
trate the ordinary use of the word by the 
inspired writers, and they show that we 
are to take it in its obvious sense when it 
is said, " Christ is the end of the law for 
righteousness to every one that believeth." 
The law at Sinai demanded righteousness, 
but grace at Calvary gives righteousness, 
even the perfect righteousness of Christ ; 
and to him that believeth, the law^ comes 
to an end, and nothing remains but the 
righteousness of God Himself as the im- 
movable ground upon which the believer 
for ever stands. If a man owes a debt 
which he cannot discharge, and his surety 
pays it for him, the law comes to an end 
so far as that debtor is concerned, because 
its requirements have been met and its 
claims satisfied, although by another, and 

1 1 Cor. XV. 23, 24. 



128 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

it has no further demands upon him. If 
a murderer has been tried, convicted, and 
executed for his crime, the law is at an 
end in his case, because it has been hon- 
oured and vindicated in the infliction of 
the threatened penalty, and it cannot 
cause the lifeless body of the felon to be 
again swung from the gallows. In like 
manner, the law of God is at an end in 
its bearing upon the believer in Jesus, 
not because it has been set aside and 
tranipled under foot by the law-giver, 
but because Christ took the place of the 
believing sinner, paying his debt and suf- 
fering the deadful penalty in his stead. 

The w^ord " law" in English is said to 
be derived from a Saxon term which sig- 
nifies "to lay." Worcester is correct, 
therefore, in defining it as " a rule of action 
laid down or prescribed by a superior." 
The Greek word here used strictly signi- 
fies " anything assigned, distributed, ap- 
portioned ; hence a usage, custom, and all 
that becomes law thereby ; a law ; ordin- 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 129 

ance." We are safe, then, in asserting 
that the word " law/' which occurs about 
seventy-five times in the Epistle to the 
Romans, denotes the rule of action which 
God has laid down or assigned for the 
government of man in his relations to his 
Creator and his fellow-creatures. About 
this rule of action a few remarks must be 
made that will carry us back for a mo- 
ment to ground which we have previously 
traversed to some extent, but which it is 
well for us to notice again. 

First, It is a rule which it is right and 
proper for man to observe. " The law is 
holy, and the commandment holy, and 
just, and good."^ "We know that the 
law is good."^ It is the expression of 
the will of a righteous God concerning 
the way He would have us feel and act, 
and hence its requirements cannot be 
wrong. No one will venture to affirm 
that there is anything unjust or unbe- 
coming in commanding us to love the 

1 Rom. vli. 12. M Tim. i. 8. 



130 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Lord our God with all the heart, and with 
all the soul, and with all the strength, 
and with all the mind, and our neigh- 
bours as ourselves, and ''on these two 
commandments," says the Saviour, " hang 
all the law and the prophets."^ 

Second, It is a rule which applies to 
the thoughts, emotions, and desires no 
less than to the w^ords and deeds. We 
have just seen that it demands supreme, 
unfaltering, unceasing love to God and 
to our fellow-men, and love exists in the 
heart. Hence it is written, " Though I 
speak with the tongues of men and of 
angels, and have not charity [love], I am 
become as sounding brass, or a tinkling 
cymbal. And though I have the gift of 
prophecy, and understand all mysteries, 
and all knowledge ; and though I have 
all faith, so that I could remove moun- 
tains, and have not charity [love], I am 
nothing. And though I bestow all my 
goods to feed the poor, and though I give 

^ Matt. xxii. 40. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 131 

my body to be burned and have not 
charity [love], it profiteth me nothing."^ 
" Love is the fulfilling of the law."^ No 
man, therefore, can keep the law in its 
true intent, unless love is the sovereign 
principle of his soul, subordinating to its 
imperial and undisputed sway every as- 
piration and sentiment, every aim and 
purpose, of his being. His life may be 
conformed to the highest standard of hu- 
man integrity, but " the Lord seeth not 
as man seeth ; for man looketh on the 
outward ajDpearance, but the Lord look- 
eth on the heart," ^ " I the Lord search 
the heart, I try the reins," ^ and hence in 
His sight the look of lust is "adul- 
tery,"^ and the secret passion of hate 
is "murder."^ 

Third, It is a rule which consists of 
two parts : a precept or command, and a 
penalty or punishment in case of diso- 
bedience. Without this threatened pen- 

1 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3. ^ Rom. xiii. 10. ^ i gam. xvi. 7. 
* Jer. xvii. 10. ^ Matt. v. 28. ^ i JqI^^ iii. 15. 



132 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

alty it could not constitute a rule of 
action. We might have advice or exhor- 
tation, but laAY, in the sense in which the 
word is here used, cannot exist unless it 
carries with it rewards and punishments 
as its high sanction to encourage and en- 
force obedience. Human governments 
never lay down or assign a rule of action 
for the observance of their subjects until 
they arm it with a penalty, for the 
simple reason that it could not be a law 
at all were it not clothed with power to 
punish the transgression or neglect of its 
requirements. In the Divine govern- 
ment too, as a matter of fact, penalty is 
connected with every rule of action which 
God has laid down for our guidance, so 
far as our experience and observation ex- 
tend. There are certain rules of action 
which apply to our bodies, as the law of 
gravitation, and hygienic laws, or laws 
pertaining to the preservation of health. 
If these rules are disregarded, the penalty 
is inevitable. Sometimes it follows in- 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 133 

stantly, and sometimes it is long delayed, 
but sooner or later its relentless inflictions 
are sure to vindicate the majesty of broken 
law. There are also certain rules of 
action which pertain to our mental facul- 
ties, and the infraction of them entails 
derangement, weakness, or other forms of 
punishment, unless indeed a miracle is 
wrought to arrest the merciless operation 
of violated law. Still further, there are 
certain rules of action which are plainly 
intended for the regulation of our moral 
nature ; and often, very often, we witness 
the fearful results of disobeying these 
rules in the agony, remorse, and sufferings 
of various kinds that overtake the wicked. 
Indeed, it is universally admitted, I be- 
lieve, that sin is punished ; while, with 
strange inconsistency and a feebleness of 
reasoning actually puerile, many argue, 
or rather hope and suppose, that it is pun- 
ished only in the present life. They do 
not reflect that, if God is too merciful to 
punish it hereafter, He should be too mer- 

12 



134 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

ciful, according to their view, to punish 
it here, since it is a mere question of de- 
gree or duration. They seem to recog- 
nize the justice, or, at all events, they are 
compelled to acknowledge the fact, of its 
punishment to some extent ; and how can 
they hesitate to accept the logical con- 
clusion that God will deal with it in eter- 
nity as He deals with it in time, and 
manifest towards it His righteous dis- 
pleasure for ever ? The wish with them 
is plainly father to their thought; but 
whatever their desires and conjectures, it 
remains unalterably true that God's law 
has a penalty, and that every sin com- 
mitted under his government will be 
strictly punished either in the person of 
the sinner or in the person of the Divine 
Substitute. " The wages of sin is death ; " ^ 
and death includes all the penal evils in- 
flicted as the consequence of sin both 
in this world and the world to come. 
" When lust hath conceived, it bringeth 

1 Eom. vi. 23. 



CHIMST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 135 

forth sin ; and sin, when it is finished, 
bringeth forth death." ^ "Indignation 
and wrath, tribnlation and anguish, upon 
every soul of man that doeth evil ; of the 
Jew first, and also of the Gentile."^ 

Fourth, It is a rule of action which 
every human being, except the man Christ 
Jesus, has violated. Sin is any desire, 
thought, word, action, or omission con- 
trary to the law of God, and it is written, 
"There is no man that sinneth not."^ 
" There is not a just man on earth, that 
doeth good, and sinneth not " ^ " All have 
sinned, and come short of the glory of 
God." ^ " In many things we offend all." ^ 
" If we say that we have not sinned, we 
make him a liar, and his word is not 
in us."^ " If we say that we have no sin, 
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not 
in us." ^ The conclusion which the Apos- 
tle draws from such statements as these is 

^ James i. 15. ^ ^q,^^ ii. 8, 9. ^1 Kings viii. 46. 
* Eccles. vii. 20. ^ Eom. iii. 23. ^ James iii. 2. 
^ 1 John i. 10. ^ 1 Jolm i. 8. 



136 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

unavoidable when he writes : " Now we 
know that what things soever the law 
saith, it saith to them who are under the 
law : that every mouth may be stopped, 
and all the world may become guilty be- 
fore God. Therefore by the deeds of the 
law there shall no flesh be justified in 
his sight : for by the law is the know- 
ledge of sin."^ Yes, the plummet has 
been let down only to prove that there is 
a total lack of rectitude on our part ; the 
straight rule has been applied to our 
character and conduct only to show an 
utter want of righteousness; the light 
from heaven has flashed into our souls 
only to reveal the defilement of our na- 
ture. It is impossible, then, that a sinner 
can be justified by doing the things re- 
quired by the law, because he has already 
failed, and continually fails, to do them ; 
and the law convicts and condemns, and 
curses him, as it is said, " Cursed is 
every one that continueth not in all 

1 Rom. iii. 19, 20. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 137 

things which are written in the book of 
the law to do them."^ You will observe 
it is not said, Cursed are some very wicked 
people, but. Cursed is every one that con- 
tinueth not in all things — not some things, 
but all things — which are written in the 
book of the law to do them ; for again it 
is said, ^^ Whosoever shall keep the whole 
law, and yet offend in one point, he is 
guilty of all."^ If a criminal were ar- 
raigned for murder, it would avail him 
little to plead that he had never com- 
mitted more than one murder, or that 
there were many other offences, such as 
theft and burglary, of which he was not 
^guilty. He might be pardoned in view 
of his general good character, but surely 
he could not be justified by the law as 
righteous, and his pardon could be ob- 
tained only by setting the law aside. 
Neither can you be justified by the law 
of God, my unsaved reader, if you have 
ever broken it in a single particular, for 

1 Gal. iii. 10. 2 James ii. 10. 

12* 



138 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

" the soul that sinneth [be it once or ten 
thousand thnes], it shall die."^ You 
may urge that you have done no harm, 
but the question is not whether you have 
done any harm ; it is whether you have 
done good, and nothing but good, out of 
the high and commanding principle of 
supreme and unchanging love to your 
Creator and your fellow-men. The law 
does not pronounce its curse against you 
because you are a particularly bad person, 
but because you are a person at all with 
a nature whose essential characteristic is 
lawlessness. 

Having considered the meaning of the 
term ^'end" and the term ^^law,'' we* 
must now glance at the import of the 
word " Christ.'' It properly signifies the 
Anointed One, and is equivalent to Mes- 
siah in Hebrew, as denoting an illustrious 
personage who was to be anointed or con- 
secrated to the work of salvation. From 
the time the promise of the woman's con- 

^ Ezek. xviii. 4. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 139 

qiiering seed was made to our fallen pa- 
rents in tlie garden of Eden, holy men 
of God who spake as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost constantly uttered 
predictions concerning this personage, 
and looked forward to His coming with 
eager expectation. The entire economy 
under which they lived was so ordered 
that its priesthood and offerings and altar, 
its ark and tabernacle and temple, down 
to the pillars and ribands, the coverings 
and curtains, the bars and boards, the 
loops and taches, found in the sacred 
building, were radiant with the light of 
His anticipated appearing and eloquent 
in His praise. He is presented through- 
out the Scriptures under a wonderful va- 
riety of names, among which we find 
Him called our Advocate, Alpha and 
Omega, Almighty, the Amen, the Angel 
of the Covenant, the Angel of Jehovah, 
the Apostle of our Profession, the Author 
of our Faith, the Beginning of Creation, 
Beloved, Branch, Bread, Bridegroom, 



140 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Brother, Captain of our Salvation, Cre- 
ator, Commander, Counsellor, Corner 
Stone, Covert from the Tempest, Days- 
man, Deliverer, Door, Elect, Ensign, 
End, Example, Father of Eternity, 
Faithful Witness, First and Last, Foun- 
tain of Life, Foundation, Friend, God, 
Guard, Guide, Governor, Head, Healer, 
Helper, Hope, Horn of Salvation, Hus- 
band, I AM, Image of God, Immanuel, 
Intercessor, Jesus, Jehovah, Judge, Just 
One, Keeper, King, Lamb, Leader, Life, 
Light of the World, Lion, Lord, Maker, 
Mediator, Messenger, Messiah, Morning 
Star, Passover, Peace, Physician, Priest, 
Prince, Prophet, Ransom, Kedeemer, 
Refiner, Resurrection, Righteousness, Re- 
storer, Ruler, Rock, Rose of Sharon, 
Root of David, Sacrifice, Saviour, Scep- 
tre, Shepherd, Shield, Shiloh, Star, Stone, 
Sun, Teacher, Tower, Truth, Vine, Way, 
Witness, Wisdom, and Word. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 

I^ND not only are these remarkable 
1^ names applied to Him, many of 
^^ which imply His true and proj)er 
^^ divinity, but the attributes of God 
are ascribed to Him by the inspired 
writers without the slightest hesitation 
or apology. Eternity is said to be the 
measure of His existence ; for it is writ- 
ten, " In the beginning was the Word ;"^ 
" Verily, verily, I say unto you. Before 
Abraham was, I am;"^ "And now, O 
Father, glorify thou me with thine own 
self, with the glory which I had with 
thee before the world was ;"^ " But thou, 
Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be 
little among the thousands of Judah, yet 

^ John i. 1. 2 John viii. 58. ^ John xvii. 5. 

141 



142 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

out of thee shall lie come forth unto 
me, that is to be ruler in Israel ; whose 
goings forth have been from of old, from 
everlasting."^ Immutability belongs to 
Him ; for God addresses Him in the sub- 
lime words, " Thou, Lord, in the begin- 
ning hast laid the foundation of the 
earth ; and the heavens are the works of 
thine hands. They shall perish, but 
thou remainest ; and they all shall wax 
old as doth a garment ; and as a vesture 
shalt thou fold them up, and they shall 
be changed : but thou art the same, and 
thy years shall not fail."^ " Jesus Christ 
the same yesterday, and to-day, and for 
ever."^ Omnipotence is His ; for even as 
Mediator, He could say, " All power is 
given unto me in heaven and in earth ;"^ 
and He reveals Himself to John on Pat- 
mos as the ^'Alpha and Omega, the be- 
ginning and the ending, saith the Lord, 
which is, and which was, and which is to 

1 Mic. V. 2. 2 ueb. i. 10-12. 

3 Heb. xiii. 8. * Matt, xxviii. 18. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 143 

come, the Almighty."^ Omnipresence is 
His; for while on earth He spoke of 
Himself as " the Son of man which is in 
heaven;"^ and encouraged the hearts of 
His disciples with the sweet promise, 
" Where two or three are gathered together 
in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them;"^ ''and, lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world." ^ Om- 
niscience is His ; for it is said, " He knew 
all men, and needed not that any should 
testify of man : for he knew what was in 
man ;"^ and Peter, led of the Holy Spirit, 
said to Him, " Lord, thou knowest all 
things;"^ and He Himself declares, "I 
am he which searcheth the reins and 
hearts."^ 

We look a little farther and find that 
the works of God are ascribed to Him 
throughout the Scriptures ; for we learn 
that " all things w^ere made by him ; and 

1 Rev. i. 8. 2 joi^n iii. 13. ^ Matt, xviii. 20. 

* Matt, xxviii. 20. ^ j^i^n ii. 24, 25. ^ John xxi. 17. 
7 Rev. ii. 23. 



144 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

without him was not anything made that 
was made ; " ^ and " by him were all things 
created, that are in heaven, and that are 
m earth, visible and invisible, whether 
they be thrones, or dominions, or princi- 
palities, or powers : all things were created 
by him and for him ; and he is before all 
things, and by him all things consist. 
And he is the head of the body, the 
Church."^ "God, who at sundry times 
and in divers manners spake in time past 
unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in 
these last days spoken unto us by his 
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all 
things, by whom also he made the worlds ; 
who being the brightness of his glory, 
and the express image of his person, and 
upholding all things by the word of his 
power, when he had by himself purged 
our sins, sat down on the right hand of 
the Majesty on high."^ "My Father 
w^orketh hitherto, and I work."^ "For 

1 John i. 3. 2 Col. i. 16, 18. 

3 Heb. i. 1-3. * John v. 17. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 145 

as the Father raiseth up the dead, and 
quickeneth them ; even so, the Son quick- 
eneth whom he wilL" ^ " I and my Father 
are one."^ "My sheep hear my voice, 
and I know them, and they follow me ; 
and I give unto them eternal life/'^ " If 
I go not away the Comforter will not 
come unto you ; but if I depart I will 
send him unto you,"^ and ^^he shall 
glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, 
and shall show it unto you/'^ "When 
the Son of man shall come in his glory, 
and all the holy angels with him, then 
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory : 
and before him shall be gathered all na- 
tions."^ "We must all appear before 
the judgment-seat of Christ ; that every 
one may receive the things done in his 
body, according to that he hath done, 
whether it be good or bad."^ "Again 
the high priest asked him, and said unto 

1 John V. 21. -^ John x. 30. ^ JqI^^ ^ 27, 28. 
* John xvi. 7. ^ John xvi. 14. e Matt. xxv. 31, 32. 
^ 2 Cor. V. 10. 
13 K 



146 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the 
Blessed ? And Jesus said, I am : and ye 
shall see the Son of man sitting on the 
right hand of power, and coming in the 
clouds of heaven."^ 

Once more, we find that He is the ob- 
ject of worship which is due to God 
alone, and which it is the height of blas- 
phemy to render to the most exalted 
creature in the universe. When Paul 
and Barnabas were at Lystra, the inhab- 
itants of that city, amazed by a miracle 
wrought upon a cripple, said, " The gods 
are come down to us in the likeness of 
men," and prepared to offer sacrifices to 
the strangers ; " which, when the apostles, 
Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent 
their clothes, and ran in among the peo- 
ple, crying out, and saying. Sirs, w^hy do 
ye these things?"^ When John had a 
revelation of the Divine purpose with 
respect to the Church in the heavenly 
glory and of the world smitten by terri- 

1 Mark xiv. 61, 62. ^ ^^tg xiv. 14, 15. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 147 

ble judgments, lie says, " I fell down to 
worship before the feet of the angel 
which showed me these things. Then 
saith he unto me, See thou do it not : for 
I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy 
brethren the prophets, and of them which 
keep the sayings of this book : worship 
God."^ But w^hen the risen Christ ap- 
peared to Thomas, that doubting disciple, 
who demanded the evidence of his own 
senses to satisfy his mind, " said unto him. 
My Lord and my God;"^ and he said 
this without the slightest intimation that 
he was guilty of blasphemy in applying 
these high titles to Jesus. Our Lord 
subsequently apj)eared to the disciples in 
a mountain of Galilee where he had ap- 
pointed to meet them, and it is said that 
'^w^hen they saw him they w"orshij)ped 
him;"^ and they evidently worshipped 
Him without rebuke, for immediately 
afterwards He claims universal power, 
and commands them to teach all nations, 

1 Rev. xxii. 8, 9. ^ j^j^n xx. 28. ^ ]yxatt. xxviii, 17. 



148 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

baptizing in His name as well as in the 
name of the Father and of the Holy 
Ghost, promising to be with them always. 
Nay, He tells us it is the Father's will 
"that all men should honour the Son, 
even as they honour the Father. He 
that honoureth not the Son honoureth 
not the Father which hath sent him."^ 
He said to his Apostles, " Ye believe in 
God, believe also in me ;"^ and w^e know 
it is the sovereign pleasure and eternal 
purpose- of God "that at the name of 
Jesus every knee should bow ; of things 
in heaven, and things in earth, and things 
under the earth ; and that every tongue 
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father."^ We 
are not surprised, then, to learn that when 
the martyred Stephen fell asleep he ad- 
dressed his dying prayer to Christ, say- 
ing, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."^ 
Nor are we surprised to learn that the 

1 John V. 23. 2 joi^n xiv. 1. 

3 Phil. ii. 10, 11. 4 Acts vii. 59. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 149 

inspired writers through the Epistles con- 
stantly assert His Divinity, supplicate His 
blessing, and associate Him on terms of 
perfect equality with the Father and the 
Holy Ghost in the aj^ostolic benediction, 
for the Father Himself sends forth the 
royal proclamation, saying, " And let all 
the angels of God worship him."^ . 

If the Being of whom all this can be 
truthfully affirmed is not God, surely 
there is no God. If He who is called by 
Divine names, who wears Divine titles, 
who possesses Divine attributes, who per- 
forms Divine works, and is represented 
as worthy of Divine worship, has not a 
Divine nature, it is simj^ly impossible to 
express the doctrine of the Deity in lan- 
guage. I have hastily skimmed over the 
surface of a very limited portion of the 
Scriptures to establish this doctrine, but 
enough has been said to prove it to the 
satisfaction of any mind that is submis- 
sive to the authority of God's word ; and 

1 Heb. i. 6. 

13* 



150 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

I must add that its cordial reception on 
your part, dear reader, is absolutely es- 
sential to your salvation. Nothing can 
be more offensive in the sight of the 
Father than the denial of the Divinity 
of His Son ; and hence He says to us by 
the Spirit, " If there come any unto you, 
and bring not this doctrine, receive him 
not into your house, neither bid him God 
speeji : for he that biddeth him God 
speed is partaker of his evil deeds." ^ 
But besides the blasphemy of denying 
His Divinity, I may say that it becomes 
an absolute necessity if we are to be 
saved, because none but a Divine person 
could be the end of a Divine law. I 
would not hang the interests of my un- 
dying soul upon the arm of the strongest 
seraph in heaven ; for angels have sinned 
and fallen from their high estate ; ^ and 
I need, yea, I must have, the righteous- 
ness, the power, and the unchangeable- 
ness of a Divine Redeemer as the solid 

' 2 Jc»hn X. 11. 2 2 Pet. ii. 4. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 151 

foundation of my hope before I can find 
lasting repose. 

This need is precisely and perfectly 
met in the person and work of " Christ 
Jesus, who, being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal with 
God : but made himself of no reputation 
[emptied himself], and took upon him 
the form of a servant, and was made in 
the likeness of men ; and being found in 
fashion as a man, he humbled himself, 
and became obedient unto death, even the 
death of the cross." ^ If the phrase, 
" took upon him the form of a servant,'' 
means that He was truly man, it is 
equally certain that the phrase, " being in 
the form of God," means that He was 
truly God ; and if you ask me how God 
could become man, I reply, I do not 
know, nor care to know, because the 
blessed fact satisfies my mind and heart ; 
and until I can tell how I raise my hand, 
or how a blade of grass grows, I shall not 

1 Phil. ii. 6-8. 



152 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

reject the glorious doctrine of the incar- 
nation on account of its mystery. " With- 
out controversy great is the mystery of 
godliness : God was manifest in the flesh, 
justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, 
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on 
in the world, received up into glory." ^ 
Man's ignorance should never be weighed 
against God's positive testimony, and we 
find that this testimony was given hun- 
dreds of years before the birth of Jesus 
in the form of a prophecy : " Behold, a 
virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and 
shall call his name Immanuel."^ Turn- 
ing to the New Testament, we read, " Now 
the birth of Jesus Christ was on this 
wise : When as his mother Mary was es- 
poused to Joseph, before they came to- 
gether, she was found with child of the 
Holy Ghost. . . . Now all this w^as done, 
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken 
of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Be- 
hold, a virgin shall be with child, and 

1 1 Tim. iii. 16. ^ jg^^ ^^ j^ 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 153 

shall bring forth a son, and they shall 
call his name Immanuel, which being in- 
terpreted, is, God with us."^ Here the 
voice of the Eternal is heard speaking to 
the proud intellect, saying, " Be still, and 
know that I am God:"^ and here it is 
the highest province of reason to sit rev- 
erently at the manger of Bethlehem, and 
gaze with adoring gratitude upon the sub- 
lime mystery of incarnate love. " When 
the fulness of the time was come, God 
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, 
made under the law, to redeem them 
that were under the law, that we might 
receive the adoption of sons."^ "For 
what the law could not do, in that it was 
weak through the flesh, God sending his 
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, 
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh : 
that the righteousness of the law might 
be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit."^ 

1 Matt. i. 18, 22, 23. ^ pg xlvi. 10. 

3 Gal. iv. 4, 5. ^ Rom. viii. 3, 4. 



154 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

The word "redeem," in the first of 
these passages, properly means to deliver 
by the payment of a ransom; and we 
know the price paid for our deliverance 
from the curse of the law^ : for the Sa- 
viour tells us " the Son of man came . . . 
to give his life a ransom for many."^ In 
the second passage, when it is said, ^' What 
the law could not do, in that it was weak 
through the flesh," we are to understand 
that the law could not give us righteous- 
ness : not that it was imperfect in itself, 
but because it was rendered inadequate, 
ineffectual, inoperative, by reason of our 
flesh or corrupt nature ; and, therefore, 
God, in His amazing grace sending forth 
His own Son, inflicted upon Him the sen- 
tence of condemnation, not only against 
sins in their outward form, but against 
sin in the flesh, or the sin of our nature. 
And " now the righteousness of God with- 
out the law is manifested, being witnessed 
by the law and the prophets ; even the 

1 Matt. XX. 28. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 155 

righteousness of God which is by faith 
of Jesus Christ unto all [that is, it is of- 
fered to all], and upon all them [that is, 
it is the actual portion of all them] that 
believe."^ I cannot be too emphatic 
in reminding you that the law has not 
been set aside, but that it has been hon- 
oured, vindicated, obeyed, satisfied, in 
every jot and tittle of its claims upon the 
believer, because " Christ hath redeemed 
us from the curse of the law, being made 
a curse for us."^ 

As another has beautifully written, 
" We were under the curse, because we 
had not kept the law ; but Christ, the 
perfect Man, having magnified the law 
and made it honourable by the very fact 
of his obeying it perfectly, became a curse 
for us by hanging on the tree. Thus, in 
His life He magnified God's law, and in 
His death He bore our curse. There is, 
therefore, now, no guilt, no curse, no 
wrath, no condemnation for the believer ; 

1 Rom. iii. 21, 22. 2 q^I. iii. 13. 



156 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

and albeit he must be manifested before 
tlie judgment-seat of Christ, he will find 
that judgment-seat every whit as friendly, 
by and by, as the mercy-seat is now. It 
will make manifest the truth of his con- 
dition, namely, that there is nothing 
against him ; what he is, it is ' God that 
hath wrought him.' He is God's work- 
manship. He was taken up in a state of 
death and condemnation, and made just 
what God would have him to be. The 
Judge Himself has put away all his sins 
and is his righteousness, so that the judg- 
ment-seat cannot but be friendly to 
him ; yea, it will be the full, public, au- 
thoritative declaration to heaven, earth, 
and hell, that the one who is washed from 
his sins in the blood of the Lamb is as 
clean as God can make him." Yes, he 
is as clean as God can make him, because 
Christ is the end of the law for righteous- 
ness to every one that believeth ; and, as 
we have already seen, this righteousness 
which he receives through faith is the very 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 157 

righteousness of God Himself. The law 
is satisfied and can ask no more. It stood, 
if I may so speak, hand in hand with 
justice, looking upon that awful scene in 
Calvary where God " made him to be sin 
for us who knew no sin ; that we might 
be made the righteousness of God in 
him,"^ and when they heard the cry, " It 
is finished,"^ they knc\v that the dying 
Redeemer had prevailed through death 
" to make an end of sins, and to make 
reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring 
in everlasting righteousness,"^ and now 
they join grace and mercy in extend- 
ing a joyful welcome to the believing 
sinner. 

They j)ursue him to the grave of Jesus, 
but they can go no farther, for their de- 
mands have all been met by Him who 
lay in the sepulchre of stone, and they 
come to an end, while the believer 23asses 
safely through, and stands in the new 
creation upon which God looks down 

•1 2 Cor. V. 21. 2 John xix. 30. ^ p^n. ix. 24. 

14 



158 THE WAY MAPE PLAIN. 

with infinite delight and sees that it is 
" very good." On this side of that tomb 
there is nothing but sin ; on the other 
side there is nothing but righteousness. 
On this side there is nothing but con- 
demnation ; on the other side there is 
nothing but justification. On this side 
there is nothing but death ; on the other 
side there is nothing but life. Theo- 
logical writers tell us that while the 
law is no longer the rule of justification, 
it is still the rule of life ; but surely they 
have no authority in the word of God for 
the assertion. In their anxiety to avoid 
the evils of Antinomianism, or the infa- 
mous doctrine that the Christian has 
license to sin, they fall into the opposite 
error of legalism, and " put a yoke upon 
the neck of the disciples, which neither 
our fathers nor we are able to bear."^ 
When they afiirm that the law is still the 
rule of life, if they mean that it still de- 
clares the mind of God as to what man 

' Acts XV. 10. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 159 

ought to be and do, there can be no ob- 
jection to the expression ; but if they 
mean that the believer is required to walk 
according to this rule in order to salva- 
tion, and that he will be judged and con- 
demned if he fails in conformity to its 
demands, nothing can be more false. The 
very ground upon which the apostle ex- 
horts Christians to abstain from sin, and 
assures them that it shall not have do- 
minion over them, is, that they " are not 
under the law, but under grace. What 
then ? shall we sin, because we are not 
under the law, but under grace? God 
forbid."^ "What shall we say then? 
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may 
abound? God forbid. How shall we, 
that are dead to sin, live any longer there- 
in ?.. . Knowing this, that our old man 
is [or rather was] crucified with him, that 
the body of sin might be destroyed, that 
henceforth we should not serve sin. . . . 
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be 

1 Rom. vi. 14, 15. 



160 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord." ^ 

Elsewhere the same apostle says, '' As 
many as are of the works of the law are 
under the curse/' ^ and no exception is 
made in favour of the believer. " But now 
we are delivered from the law, that being 
dead wherein we were held [or we being 
dead to that wherein we were held] ; that 
we should serve in newness of spirit and 
not in the oldness of the letter."^ Christ 
took our place under the law, and by en- 
during its penalty made an end of it, and 
henceforth He is our life and rule of 
life, and all in all to the saved soul. The 
Bible everywhere affirms that when He 
died we who believe also died ; and when 
He was made alive, God " quickened us 
together with Christ, (by grace ye are 
saved ;) and hath raised us up together, 
and hath made us sit together in heavenly 
places in Christ Jesus.''* There the be- 

1 Kom. vi. 1, 2, 6, 11. ^ q^I. iii. 10. 

3 Eom. vii. 6. * Epli. ii. 5, 6. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 161 

liever is now, as God views him ; no long- 
er on earth, but in the heavenly places ; 
having a perfect righteousness because 
his Divine Surety has met all the de- 
mands of the law for him, and possessing 
the resurrection life of Jesus, which is 
something infinitely better than the life 
given to Adam in Eden. 

Thus it is, " Christ is the end of the 
law for righteousness to every one that 
belie veth ;'' because His righteousness, or 
that which He did to satisfy the claims 
of the law, is imputed to the believer ; 
and if you desire to know the meaning 
of the term " imputed," turn to the Epis- 
tle to Philemon where the apostle, speak- 
ing of Onesimus, says, " If he hath 
wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put 
that on mine account."^ There the 
phrase, "put that on mine account," is 
precisely the same word in Greek which 
the apostle uses in Romans where he 
says, " Sin is not imputed when there ib 

iPhilem. 18. 
II * L 



162 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

no law."^ The righteousness of Christ, 
then, \Bput on the account of the believer ; 
and whatever merits Christ has in the 
sight of the Father the believer also pos- 
sesses. He who was " holy, harmless, un- 
defiled, separate from sinners;"^ "who 
did no sin, neither vv^as guile found in his 
mouth ;"^ who had the approval of God 
in " a voice from heaven saying. This is 
my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased;"^ who could say, "I do always 
those things that please him,"^ and who 
" appeared to put away sin by the sacri- 
fice of himself,"^ is no nearer to the heart 
of the Father than is the believing sin- 
ner. The measure of the acceptance of 
one in the sight of God is the precise 
measure of the acceptance of the other. 
Oh matchless grace ! I do not wonder that 
men are so slow to believe it, for the news 
seems too good to be true. But it is true, 
for the Holy One hath said it, and it is 

1 Rom. V. 13. 2 Heb. vii. 26. ^ 1 Pet. ii. 22. 

* Matt. iii. 17. ^ John viii. 29. « Heb. ix. 26. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 163 

true to every one that believeth. Believ- 
etli what ? Believeth that Christ is the 
end of the law for righteousness ; believ- 
eth that Christ apj)eared to put away 
sin by the sacrifice of Himself; believeth 
the testimony of God that " the blood of 
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all 
sin."^ 

Many precious thoughts here crowd 
upon my mind^ but I must not give ut- 
terance to them at present, for I have 
already made this chapter too long. The 
discussion of belief will come up again, 
if the Lord will, and I cannot dwell upon 
it now. I merely wish to say that when 
men tell you to do anything to be saved 
they are preaching the law and not the 
Gospel. You have only to believe ; and 
believing is not doing : it is the opposite 
of doing ; it is simply receiving, and rest- 
ing on the finished work of Christ which 
is already done, and done more than eigh- 
teen hundred years ago. The sin-hating 

1 1 John i. 7. 



164 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

God met the sin-bearing Jesus at the 
place of a skull, and there once and for 
ever settled the question of the believer's 
salvation, and we had nothing to do with 
it. Now the glad tidings are sent forth 
to the ends of the earth : " Be it known 
unto you, therefore, men and brethren, 
that through this man is preached unto 
you the forgiveness of sins ; and by him 
all that believe are justified from all 
things, from which ye could not be jus- 
tified by the law of Moses." ^ Are jus- 
tified : mark that. They are already 
justified ; and they cannot be partly 
justified and partly unjustified, partly 
saved and partly unsaved. If they be- 
lieve that what God has said' about His 
Son is true, and true for them, as it is for 
any other sinner, they have at this pres- 
ent moment a perfect righteousness, and 
there is not one condemnation against 
them. What, then, do these doubting 
believers mean, if I may be allowed to 

1 Acts xiii. 38, 39. 



CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF THE BELIEVER. 165 

use such an expression as doubting be- 
lievers? If their doubts are true, God 
is a liar, but if God is true their doubts 
are liars ; for He hath said, '' Christ is 
the end of the law for righteousness to 
every one that believeth/^ 



CHAPTEE IX. 

NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW, 

"For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the 
law, That the man which doeth those things shall live 
by them."— Romans x. 5. 

" ^HERE are only two ways by which 

tmen expect to enter heaven. One 
is by doiiig^ the other is by be- 
lieving. We often hear doleful 
and sometimes unmeaning complaints 
about the great diversity of religious 
opinions in the world, but all systems of 
faith can be readily reduced to the two 
already mentioned. In the one class we 
must place that vast multitude without 
the pale of the Christian Church who, 
acknowledging in general terms the ex- 
istence of God and a future state of re- 
wards and punishments, seek to win the 

166 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 167 

approval of their Creator by their ami- 
able character, or by their upright con- 
duct, or by certain acts of worship sanc- 
tioned by custom or suggested by con- 
science. To these must be added that 
vast multitude within the pale of the 
Church who seek to win the approval of 
their Creator by their prayers, or good 
works, or reception of what are called 
the Sacraments. I am not here referring 
to any particular denomination of pro- 
fessing Christians, but to all in every de- 
nomination who rely upon anything what- 
ever that they have done or can do to be 
saved. 

They agree precisely with the former 
class, and stand upon precisely the same 
ground, and are doomed to the same end ; 
for the unbelievers are to have their " por- 
tion with the hypocrites,"^ and the hypo- 
crites are to have their " portion with the 
unbelievers."^ If the one will be saved 
by well-doing, so will the other, unless it 

^ Matt. xxiv. 51. 2 l^-jJ^-^ ^ii. 46. 



168 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

can be shown that God has promised 
eternal life for a special kind of well- 
doing ; but if the one will be lost for re- 
fusing to rest simply and solely upon the 
finished work of Christ, so will the other. 
The fact that some are members of the 
Church and some are not does not change 
in the slightest degree the principle on 
which they act, and which in both cases 
is the principle of doing as the procuring 
cause of salvation. One man hopes to be 
saved because he pays his just debts, or 
because he is honourable in his business 
transactions, or because he is a faithful 
husband, an indulgent father, and a kind 
neighbour, or because he contributes his 
money, example, and energies to advance 
the welfare of the community and coun- 
try in which he lives. Another man 
hopes to be saved because he has been 
baptized in what he supposes to be an au- 
thorized form and by an authorized min- 
ister, or because he has partaken of the 
Lord's Supper, or because he goes to 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 169 

church, or because he tries to live up to 
the rules of the ecclesiastical body which 
he has joined and does his part in pro- 
moting: the interests of that body. 

It is obvious that these two men do not 
differ with respect to the principle which 
underlies their hope of salvation, for they 
depend alike upon their own doing to be 
admitted into the glorious dwelling-place 
of God when called to leave the world. 
One may utterly reject the Divine au- 
thority of the Bible, and the other may 
be a Presbyterian, or Baptist, or Congre- 
gationalist, or Methodist, or Episcopalian, 
or Roman Catholic, or known by any 
other denominational title ; but it is clear 
that they build upon the same founda- 
tion and must stand or fall together. If 
you ask for the reason of their expecta- 
tion that they will be saved, you will find 
that in both cases they rely on something 
that they have done^ or are doing ^ or in- 
tend to do^ and hence the ground of their 
hope, so far as they put themselves to the 

15 



170 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

trouble of forming any distinct views of 
the subject, is one and the same, whether 
they are in or out of the Church. It is 
to be feared that there are thousands in 
all the churches who w^ould listen with 
blank amazement to the solemn direction 
of the Holy Ghost, " Be ready alw^ays to 
give an answer to every man that asketh 
you a reason of the hope that is in you ;"^ 
but when w^e are able by close questioning 
to arrive at that reason, it amounts to 
nothing more than this : they were taught 
to believe that they are sinners, and some- 
times a slumbering conscience wakes up 
long enough to confirm the teaching ; and 
influenced by the example and wishes of 
parent, or husband, or wife, or friend, 
they made a profession of religion, as it 
is significantly called. They are not 
happy in their relations to God, who is 
an object of dread or indifference, and 
hence they think it wise to do something 
to secure them against punishment in the 

1 1 Pet. iii. 15. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 171 

eternal world in case of sudden death, 
while their tastes, aims, and aspirations 
centre with supreme regard about the 
present w^orld. I have known Christian 
mothers to take great comfort from the 
fact that their daughters, after a night of 
God-forgetting and God-defying revelry, 
were pious enough to say their prayers 
before retiring to rest ; and the poor de- 
luded daughters really fancy that they 
have done something to cause the sleep- 
less eye of Jehovah to look upon them 
complacently. 

Upon ministers of the Gospel — nay, 
ministers of the law, I should term them 
— largely rests the responsibility for this 
lamentable state of things ; because in 
reply to the earnest question of many an 
anxious soul, "What must I do to be 
saved ?"^ instead of answering in the 
language of the apostle, and preaching 
the good news of God's love and of a fin- 
ished salvation to the believer, they tell 

1 Acts xvi. 30. 



172 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the inquirer to be confirmed, or to unite 
witli the Church, or to enter into cove- 
nant with God to serve Him, or to keep 
on praying and striving, and thus put 
the dead sinner on a course of worthless 
doing. "They be blind leaders of the 
blind. And if the blind lead the blind, 
both shall fall into the ditch." ^ God 
knows I do not desire to express myself 
harshly ; and surely I can have no wish 
to excite the enmity and call forth the 
opposition of those who are warmly at- 
tached to their religious teachers and to 
the systems of religious faith in which 
they have been educated ; but the inter- 
ests involved in this discussion are too 
precious to allow the use of honeyed 
phrases concerning men who claim to be 
" the servants of the most high God, 
which shew unto us the w^ay of salva- 
tion."^ "To the law and to the testi- 
mony : if they speak not according to 
this word, it is because there is no light 

1 Matt. XV. 14. 2 ^Vots xvi. 17. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 173 

in tliem."^ ^' For Moses describeth the 
[righteousness which is of the law, That 
the man which doeth those things shall 
live by them." 

If then a man expects to obtain right- 
eousness by the law or by the principle 
of doing, he must do the things required 
by the law. It is not enough that he 
tries to do them ; or that he promises to 
do them ; or that he is sorry because he 
has not done them ; or that he does some 
of them ; but he must actually do, and 
do without faltering, and do all the things 
demanded by the law, or a voice breaks 
like thunder above his head, saying, 
" Cursed is every one that continueth not 
in all things which are written in the 
book of the law to do them."^ God, w^ho 
gave the law and knows why He gave it, 
has also said, " Whosoever shall keep the 
whole law, and yet offend in one point, 
he is guilty of all."^ "And the Levites 
shall speak, and say unto all the men of 

1 Isa. viii. 20. ^ q^j^ jj^^ jq^ 3 James ii. 10. 

15* 



174 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Israel with a loud voice, . . . Cursed be 
lie that confirmeth not all the w^ords of 
this law to do them ; and all the people 
shall say, Amen/'^ Even the incarnate 
One who came on a mission of love and 
salvation to our lost race solemnly de- 
clared, " Till heaven and earth pass, one 
jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass 
from the law, till all be fulfilled."^ The 
law, therefore, cannot lower its demands 
to humour the caprices or to suit the ne- 
cessities of the sinner, for then it would 
be no law at all. It is an unalterable ex- 
pression of the will of God concerning 
the duty of man, and it remains for 
ever the same in its holy precepts and 
in its dread penalty, whatever may be 
our state. Human laws are often re- 
pealed ; or changed in some of their 
principal features ; or suffered to lie on 
the statute book as a dead letter ; because 
the legislators and the executive are fre- 
quently ignorant, passionate, fickle, and 

1 Deut. xxvii. 14, 26. ^ jyi^tt. v. 18. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SIXNER IN THE LAW. 175 

powerless to enforce their decrees ; but 
the Divine law, as we have already seen, 
is j)crfect ; and the Divine Lawgiver has 
all the resources of the universe at His 
command to do His bidding. Hence it 
is written, " If the word [that is the law] 
spoken by angels was steadfast, and every 
transgression and disobedience received a 
just recompense of reward ; how shall we 
escape if we neglect so great salvation ?"^ 
The law, we here learn, is steadfast, 
stable, firmly established ; and every 
transgression — not only some gross and 
enormous transgressions, but every trans- 
gression and disobedience — is sure to re- 
ceive a just recompense of reward ; " for 
the wages of sin is death." ^ What hope, 
then, can the sinner derive from the law 
or from reliance upon his own doing to 
be saved ? None whatever. The right- 
eousness which Moses describeth, that 
the man which doeth those things shall 
live by them, most clearly can be of no 

1 Heb. ii. 2, 3. 2 ^^^^ ^^j^ 23. 



176 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

avail to the man who has not done them. 
The promise is only to him who doeth 
them, and not to him w^ho fails to do 
them. If any can be found who have 
perfectly obeyed the requirements of the 
law in thought, emotion, word, and deed, 
they may begin to speak of winning 
heaven on the principle of doing ; but if 
it can be proved that all, without excep- 
tion, have disobeyed these requirements, 
it follows, so far as the law is concerned, 
that it condemns and curses the entire 
human family, and demands that the 
threatened penalty shall be inflicted. 

I am not now speaking of the adorable 
grace and unsearchable wisdom of the Law- 
giver in providing a substitute upon whom 
the penalty descended, instead of upon 
" his people which he foreknew," but my 
aim is to call the attention of the reader 
to the fact that if his reliance for salva- 
tion is upon keeping the law or upon his 
own doing, he is utterly helpless and 
hopeless. Law knows no mercy. Its 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 177 

whole office is discharged when it lays 
down a rule of action and promises to 
justify or to declare righteous those who 
conform to this rule, with the fearful 
alternative of punishment if the rule 
is violated in the slightest particular. 
They, then, know not what they say, nor 
whereof they affirm, who dismiss the 
tremendous realities of eternity from their 
attention with the flippant remark that 
they will be saved if they do the best 
they can. Even if this w^ere true, there 
is not an honest man in the world who 
will dare say, in the presence of the holy 
God, that he has always done the best he 
could. The general confession contained 
in the Episcopal prayer-book, " to be said 
by the whole congregation after the min- 
ister," might well be said by the whole 
human race in the humble acknowledg- 
ment : " Almighty and most merciful 
Father : we have erred, and strayed from 
thy ways like lost sheep. We have fol- 
lowed too much the devices and desires 

M 



178 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

of our own hearts. We have offended 
against thy holy laws. We have left 
undone those things which we ought 
to have done ; and we have done those 
things which we ought not to have done ; 
and there is no health in us." Not only 
have we left undone many things which 
we ought to have done, but many things 
which we might have done ; and not only 
have we done many things which we 
ought not to have done, but many things 
which we might have avoided. This, I 
am sure, every candid and intelligent 
person will promptly admit, and hence 
those who claim that they will be saved 
if they do the best they can must see, 
after a moment's reflection, that they will 
have no ground upon which they can 
stand in the Judgment. 

But I will go a step farther and say 
that if my reader were able from the hour 
his eye falls upon these lines to abstain 
entirely from sin, he could not be saved 
in virtue of his own doing. Yes, I will 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 179 

take it for granted, for the sake of argu- 
ment, that henceforth he can perfectly 
keep the law of God in thought, word, 
and deed ; and, after all, he must inevit- 
ably be lost if his dependence is placed 
on his own good character and conduct ; 
" for Moses describeth the righteousness 
which is of the law. That the man which 
doeth those things shall live by them." 
He does not say that the man which 
doeth those things part of the time, but 
all the time ; for if life is to be earned on 
the principle of doing the things required 
by the law, they must not be left undone, 
but done. If they are left undone once 
or for a single instant, all hoj)e of being 
saved by doing is gone, and gone for ever. 
Sup2)0se, then, that when judged by the 
law you could truthfully claim that you 
had strictly observed all its commands 
for ten, tw^enty, or thirty years, the Judge 
would very proi3erly reply. Why did you 
not observe them all the time? What 
were you doing the many years previous 



180 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

to your observance of them but commit- 
ting sin continually ? According to your 
own showing, you have utterly failed in 
your duty, and as you prefer to be judged 
by the law, O sinner, you are con- 
demned. " Cast ye the unprofitable ser- 
vant into outer darkness : there shall be 
weeping and gnashing of teeth." ^ 

What would be thought of a court of 
justice which would justify or declare 
righteous a man arraigned at its bar 
on the ground that, although he had 
committed innumerable crimes through a 
long series of years, he had subsequently 
reformed and become an upright citizen ? 
The chief executive might possibly par- 
don him in view of his reformation, but 
he could not do it without setting the law 
aside ; and surely he could not pronounce 
him a righteous man, or right according 
to law. But God can never set His 
" holy, just and good" law aside, nor can 
He fail, as has been previously shown, to 

1 Matt. XXV. 30. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SIXNER IN THE LAW. 181 

piinisli sin ; and therefore, if the sinner 
could be obedient hereafter in every re- 
spect to the demands of the law, his sub- 
sequent good conduct could not possibly 
atone for his former bad conduct, nor 
exempt him from the penalty wdiich is 
denounced against " every transgression 
and disobedience." 

But it adds immensely to the embar- 
rassment of the sinner, and still further 
j)roves that there is no hope for him in 
the law or upon the principle of doing, 
when we remember that, strive as he may, 
he will continue to sin. Admitting that 
he can wholly abstain from transgression 
by the strength of his will, and resolu- 
tions, and vows, and efforts, the law can- 
not possibly justify him, because he has 
already disobeyed its precepts, and he 
cannot with his utmost endeavours do 
more than it requires ; so that he comes 
short of his duty although he should 
never again be guilty of a single offence. 
How helpless, then, is his condition when 

16 



182 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

he discovers by sad experience, as he 
surely will discover, that the good which 
he would, he does not, and the evil which 
he would not, that he does ! When, 
aroused from his death sleep by the 
quickening voice of the Son of God, he 
undertakes to do something to be saved 
and flies to the law for refuge, he finds to 
his amazement that he had not known 
before the hidden evils of his heart. He 
is like a man who dwells in a dark room 
and imagines that it is clean, until the 
law enters like the sunlight and reveals 
the dust and defilement lying all around. 
He is like a man who thinks in his in- 
toxication that he is pursuing a straight 
path, until the law comes, like a perfect 
rule, and shows him how crooked his 
ways have been. " What shall we say 
then? Is the law sin? God forbid. 
Nay, I had not known sin, but by the 
law^ ; for I had not knoAvn lust, except 
the law had said. Thou shalt not covet." ^ 

^ Ivom. vii. 7. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 183 

I am but stating the experience of all, 
without exception, who have earnestly 
and resolutely tried the law, or the prin- 
ciple of doing, in order to be saved, when 
I say that a miserable failure has been 
the uniform result ; and it is owing to my 
anxiety to saye you this bitter experience, 
dear reader, that I dwell so much upon a 
point which may seem to you of little 
importance. How many sincere souls 
might be spared months and years of 
gloomy despondency and harassing fears 
if taught at the beginning of their relig- 
ious experience the utter uselessness and 
worthlessness of their own doing ! You 
remember that when our blessed Lord 
was on the earth, " there came one run- 
ning, and kneeled to him, and asked 
him, Good Master, what shall I do that I 
may inherit eternal life ?" Observe that, 
like sinners now, he wanted to do some- 
thing, and the Saviour met him on his 
own ground. It is as if He had said, 
You ask what you must do ; and, since 



184 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

you are determined to seek salvation by 
doing, '' thou knowest the commandments, 
Do not commit adultery, Do not kill. Do 
not steal, Do not bear false witness. De- 
fraud not. Honour thy father and mother." 
You will notice that Christ takes him 
only to that part of the ten command- 
ments which requires us to love our neigh- 
bour as ourselves, and does not refer to 
that higher part which requires us to love 
God with all the heart, and soul, and 
strength, and mind ; because the former 
was sufficient to disclose to the inquirer 
the deceitfulness of his heart. " And he 
answered and said unto him, Master, all 
these have I observed from my youth. 
Then Jesus beholding him loved him, 
and said unto him. One thing thou lack- 
est: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou 
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt 
have treasure in heaven : and come, take 
up the cross, and follow me.'' If he really 
loved his neighbour as himself, why did 
he wish to retain his immense wealth and 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 185 

leave others around him wretchedly poor, 
when, if he had been poor and they rich, 
he would have desired to share in their 
abundance ? '' And he was sad at that 
saying, and went away grieved ; for he 
had great possessions."^ Alas! with all 
his doing that made him so amiable and 
attractive, he had not complied with the 
spirit of the second table of the Deca- 
logue, to say nothing of the first. My 
reader, if you really insist uj)on trying 
to be saved by trying to keep the law, 
you will discover that it will baffle your 
best efibrts, and outstrip your most ardu- 
ous pursuit of holiness, and more and more 
reveal the abyss of ruin in which you are 
plunged, and drag from their secret lurk- 
ing-places in your soul sins of whose ex- 
istence you have probably been ignorant. 

A Mark x. 17-22. 
16* 



CHAPTEE X. 

NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 

^lill C!hurch to save you? Poor sin- 
S'S^ ner ! how can the Church save you 
"^ o when it is nothing, as its name im- 
plies, but an assembly of sinners called 
out from the world to be the witness of 
the grace that has plucked them as brands 
from the burning ? I yerily believe that 
there is nothing about which there is such 
mischievous confusion of mind and such 
horrible darkness as concerning ^^The 
Church." If the Church saves, pray in 
what part of it is salvation found ? Is it 
in the preacher, or the people, or the ser- 
vices ? Do you not perceive at a glance 
that in going to the Church for salvation 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 187 

you are going back to the law and to this 
fatal principle of doing ? Do you not see 
that you are guilty of blasphemy in trans- 
ferring the perfections of Jehovah, whose 
high province and sole prerogative it is 
to save, to sinful creatures like yourself? 
Take heed, I beseech you, how you ]3ut 
your trust in the Church, lest you should 
be aroused by the terrors of the judg- 
ment to the frightful discovery that you 
have been building your hope of life on 
a foundation of sand. There is not a 
church organization on earth that has not 
departed from the simplicity and purity 
in doctrine and practice of the Gospel 
standard ; and inasmuch as the Lord has 
plainly revealed that all these ecclesias- 
tical systems are to perish amid the crash 
and wreck that will close the present dis- 
pensation, he who expects to be saved in 
virtue of his connection with any body 
of professing Christians will feel the 
ground on which he stands give way as 
with the throes of an earthquake, and no 



188 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

resting-place shall be found for his soul. 
God forbid that I should disparage the 
real Church, or the assembly of the saved 
which constitutes the mystical body, and 
by and by will be manifested as the beau- 
tiful bride, of the King of kings ; but 
woe to him who hangs his hope of eter- 
nal life upon her impotent arm ! He is 
ascribing to the creature the power and 
grace that belong only to the Creator, 
and deludes himself with the vain confi- 
dence of the Jews, in the days of the 
Apostles, when they lost sight of Christ 
to trust for salvation in circumcision and 
other appointed ordinances. The Church, 
however imposing her ceremonies and 
however exalted her dignitaries, is com- 
posed of sinners who, believing in Jesus, 
" are builded together for a habitation of 
God through the Spirit;"^ and it would 
be a strange thing indeed if the saved 
could become the Saviour in any other 
sense than to testify of His redv^eming 

' Eph. ii. 22. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 189 

love and of the infinite merit of His 
atoning blood. 

But I will go a step farther with my 
argument and assert that there could be 
no hope for the sinner, in the law or on 
the prineij)le of doing, even if he were 
able to abstain entirely hereafter from the 
transgression of the commandments ; and 
even if he were able to say truthfully 
that he has never in the past violated one 
of these precepts ; and even if he were 
able to discover a Church exactly con- 
formed in all respects to the Apostolic 
standard, and should become the most 
j)rominent leader in its services. When 
you read this assertion, do not, I pray 
you, throw the book contemptuously 
down, but, however offensive it may be, 
at least consider w^hat I have to say in its 
sup]3ort. I would not thrust a bony and 
cold-blooded theology at you to haunt 
your dreams like a spectre, and I have 
as little relish as you can possibly have 
for those nice hair-splitting distinctions in 



190 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

doctrinal statement that are of no prac- 
tical value to the soul. But, clear reader, 
I am dealing with a solemn truth and a 
tremendous fact when I repeat that if 
your outward life Avere perfectly blame- 
less, and if you were a distinguished 
member of the only true Church on the 
face of the earth, could you find such a 
body, you would still need something else 
before obtaining a scriptural hope of sal- 
vation. My authority for this declaration 
is found in the oft-repeated testimony of 
the word of God that our very nature is 
sinful, and hence our Lord, as if address- 
ing each person belonging to our race, 
distinctly afiirms, " Yerily, verily, I say 
unto thee" — I who can neither deceive 
nor be deceived — I who came down from 
heaven to die in the room and stead of 
lost men — " I say unto thee, Except a 
man [except any one, every one] be born 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God."^ 

^ John iii. 3. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNEK IN THE LAW. 191 

Those who reject the finished work of 
Christ as the only ground of their hope 
may cavil as much as they please at these 
words ; but there they stand for ever in 
the Sacred Scriptures, and no impious 
hand can tear them from the Bible, and 
no ingenious criticism can force them to 
signify mere reformation or the reception 
of rites and sacraments. When the 
blessed Saviour said, " Ye must be born 
again/' ^ He obviously meant just what 
He said, and not something He did not 
say. We have been born once, — born of 
our earthly j)arents, — and now we must be 
born again, or we cannot see the kingdom 
of God. The way in which we are born 
again is very simple, and the Lord states 
it in language that cannot be misunder- 
stood when He says, "And as Moses 
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 
even so must the son of Man be lifted up : 
that w^hosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have eternal life." '" Who- 

^ John iii. 7, ^ John iii. 14, 15. 



192 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

soever belieyetli, then, has eternal Hfe, 
and whosoever has eternal life surely sees 
and enters the kingdom of God : so that 
whosoever believeth is born again. " For 
God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life.'^-^ God loved and 
gave^ and we believe and have ; and this 
is all of it in order to attain life and ex- 
perience the new birth. To the same 
effect we read, " As many as received him 
[Christ], to them gave he power to be- 
come the sons of God, even to them that 
believe on his name : which w^ere born, 
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the will of man, but of God."^ 
" Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the 
Christ is born of God."^ "Ye are all 
the children of God by faith in Christ 
Jesus." ^ "Therefore if any man be in 
Christ he is a new creature,"^ or, as it 

1 John iii. 16. ^ j^^n i. 12, 13. ^ 1 John v. 1. 
* Gal. iii. 26. ^ 2 Cor. v. 17. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 193 

might be rendered, he is an unimj)aired, 
uncontaminated creation. In other words, 
he is born again ; and no one has the 
right to say that we can be born only 
once. Indeed, unless we are born a 
second time, born from above, born of 
God, it is certain that we can never see 
heaven ; for the old nature which we in- 
herit from fallen Adam cannot be ad- 
mitted into the presence of the Holy One 
of whom it is written, " Thou art of purer 
eyes than to behold evil, and canst not 
look on iniquity."^ " That which is born 
of the flesh is flesh," says Jesus, " and 
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."'^ 
The birth, then, is as real and literal in 
one case as in the other, and the one is 
no more mysterious than the other. 

It is upon such statements as the last 
quoted I rest the important doctrine that 
there is no hope for the sinner in the law, 
even if he is and always has been per- 
fectly conformed to its precepts in his 

^ Hab. i. 13. 2 j^i^^ ^ji g 

17 N 



194 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

outward life ; and even if he faithfully 
goes through the whole round of relig- 
ious observances required by the Church. 
" That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; " 
and our Saviour obviously designs to teach 
us that it can never be anything but flesh, 
while that which is born of the Spirit is 
spirit, and can never be anything but 
spirit. The word flesh, which is often 
used in the Bible to denote mankind, is 
also frequently employed to set forth the 
fact that man is corrupt and depraved ; 
as it is written, " God looked upon the 
earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for 
all flesh had corrupted his way upon the 
earth." ^ Keeping in view this universal 
corruption w^hich is characteristic of the 
human race, it is easy to see why the 
Holy Ghost directed the inspired writers 
to describe our fallen, sinful nature, as we 
are born into the world, by the term flesh. 
The Apostle Paul says, " I know that in 
me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no 

1 Gen. vi. 12. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 195 

good tiling."^ ^^Witli tlie mind I my- 
self serve the law of God ; but with the 
flesh the law of sin."^ ^^They that are 
after the flesh do mind the things of the 
flesh ; but they that are after the Spirit, 
the things of the Spirit. For to be car- 
nally minded [or the minding of the 
flesh] is death ; but to be spiritually 
minded [or the minding of the spirit] is 
life and peace." ^ ^^Make not provision 
for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."^ 
"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 
fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh 
lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit 
against the flesh : and these are contrary 
the one to the other ; so that ye cannot do 
the things that ye would." ^ " The works 
of the flesh are manifest, which are these : 
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciv- 
iousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, va- 
riance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, 
heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, 

^ Rom. vii. 18. ^ Rom. vii. 25. ^ Rom. viii. 5, 6. 
* Rom. xiii. 14. 5 q^]^ y. iq^ 17. 



196 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

revellings, and such, like."^ ''They that 
are Christ's have crucified the flesh with 
the affections and lusts." ^ " He that sow- 
eth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap cor- 
ruption ; but he that sow^eth to the Spirit 
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."^ 
These quotations, taken from two of 
the Epistles, prove that the w^ord Jlesh, 
very often, at least, indicates the depravity 
and sinfulness of our nature; and they 
still further prove that the nature we in- 
herit from fallen Adam remains depraved 
and sinful to the end of life. " That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh," 
and do what you will with it, you can 
never make anything of it but flesh. 
Adorn it with all the charms of the most 
attractive morality, beautify it wdth all 
the graces of the most refined culture, 
and still it remains flesh. '' Do men 
gather grapes of thorns, or figs of this- 
tles?"^ Can you by any amount of care 

1 Gal. V. 19-21. 2 Qal. v. 24. 

3 Gal. vi. 8. * Matt. vii. 16. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 197 

and industry cause thorns to produce 
grajDCS or thistles to bring forth figs? 
This may be done just as soon as flesh 
can be turned into spirit, or that which is 
inherently and essentially sinful can be 
changed into hohness. " Can the Ethio- 
pian change his skin, or the leopard his 
spots ? Then," says the Lord, " may ye 
also do good, that are accustomed to do 
eyil."^ In other words, neither in the 
case of the Ethiopian, nor the leopard, 
nor the sinner, can the nature be changed 
into another nature. A new nature may 
be imparted or a new creation wTOught 
by the power of the Almighty, but the 
old nature will be the old nature still. 
Hence the Bible in describing the way 
of salvation does not represent it as due 
to certain moral influences which God 
brings to bear upon the soul, but to " the 
exceeding greatness of his powder to us- 
w^ard wdio believe, according to the work- 
ing of his mighty power [or the energy 

1 Jer. xiii. 23. 
17* 



198 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

of the might of his power] which he 
wrought in Christ, when he raised him 
from the dead, and set him at his own 
right hand in the heavenly places.''^ 
Nothing short of the highest exercise of 
Diyine power can avail to raise us out of 
the profound abyss of our misery, because 
our nature is helplessly sinful and hope- 
lessly ruined. God's judgment of our 
state by nature is contained in His own 
solemn declaration, " the heart is deceitful 
above all things, and desperately wick- 
ed;"^ and it will give the full force of 
this declaration to remember that the 
word translated "desperately" is ren- 
dered "incurable" and "fatal" when ap- 
plied to a disease or a wound. Man's na- 
ture then is incurably wicked, it is fatally 
injured; and, therefore, in the promise 
of salvation which the Lord addresses to 
Israel, He says, " A new heart also will I 
give you, and a new spirit will I put 
within you."^ The psalmist, taught by 

1 Eph. i. 19, 20. 2 jer. xvii. 9. ^ Ezek. xxxvi. 26. 



^O HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 199 

the Holy Ghost, prays, " Create in me a 
clean heart, O God;"^ and neither he 
nor any other of the inspired writers 
ever use the unscriptural phrase, " a 
change of heart," which we so often hear 
in our pulpits and read in our religious 
books. 

The j)hrase is objectionable because it 
implies that the new birth does not con- 
sist in the imparting of the new nature, 
but in the improyement or reformation 
of the old ; and for this view I am satis- 
fied there is no foundation whatever in 
the word of God or in Christian experi- 
ence. On the other hand, it is written, 
" The carnal mind is enmity against God : 
for it is not subject to the law of God, 
neither indeed can be."^ Here we are 
told that the carnal mind, the fleshly 
mind, that which is born of the flesh, 
man's nature, is not only an enemy, but 
enmity itself against God, and that it 
cannot be subject to the law of God. 

1 Ps. li. 10. 2 j»ojjj^ ^^11 7^ 



200 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

" So, then, they that are m the flesh can- 
not please God."^ The carnal mind, or 
the flesh, or the old nature cannot, there- 
fore, be changed or improved ; for then 
it could become subject to the law of God 
and please Him, which is here declared 
to be impossible. Again : " The nat- 
ural man receiveth not the things of 
the Spirit of God : for they are foolish- 
ness unto him : neither can he know 
them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned;"^ and if the natural man can 
neither receive nor know the things of 
the Spirit of God, it seems to be quite 
certain that the Spirit of God is not 
changing, improving and reforming the 
natural man or man's old nature. Again : 
" The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and 
the Spirit against the flesh : and these 
are contrary the one to the other ;"^ and 
if this perpetual conflict is going on be- 
tween the two, how can it be said that the 

1 Eom. viii. 8. ' 1 Cor. ii. 14. ^ q^I. v. 17. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 201 

Spirit is gradually transforming the flesh 
or the old nature into His own likeness ? 
Again : Christians are exhorted to " put 
off/' not change or reform, but put off, 
" the old man, which is corrupt [mark it, 
is corrupt], according to the deceitful 
lusts;" and to "put on the new man 
which after God is created in righteous- 
ness and true holiness."^ Again: "In 
Christ Jesus neither circumcision ayaileth 
anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new 
creature"^ (or new creation). 

In the light of these clear statements, 
and of manv others like them that could 
be quoted if necessary, we are compelled 
to see that the nature we have inherited 
from fallen Adam is totally ruined. 
There is not, according to the vain 
thought of many, a little good in man as 
he is born into the world, " for I know 
that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth 
no good thing," ^ and in God's sight, 
" every imagination of the thoughts of 

1 Eph. iv. 22, 24. ^ q.^^ ^^ 15 3 ^^^ ^ij 13 



202 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

his heart was only evil continually."^ 
He is not like a ship whose sails have 
been split by a storm and whose masts 
have been splintered by the lightning, so 
that it needs repair ; but like a shattered 
wreck upon the shore. A new vessel 
must be built. He is not like a musical 
instrument whose strings have become 
discordant by the violence of some rude 
clashing hand, but like one broken to 
pieces. A new instrument must be con- 
structed. He is not like a temple whose 
altar is desecrated, whose walls are de- 
faced, and whose pillars have been dis- 
mantled of their beauty ; but the mag- 
nificent edifice that once reflected the 
glory of the Godhead now lies a shape- 
less mass of worthless rubbish, the fit 
abode of unclean birds and venomous 
reptiles ; and a new building must be 
reared. Our nature is like a human 
body full of " wounds, and bruises, and 
putrefying sores; they have not been 

1 Gen. vi. 5. 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 203 

closed, neither bound up, neither molh- 
fied with ointment:"^ and the Holy 
Ghost did not come dow^n in witness of 
the ascension of Christ, to inhabit such a 
thing as this, and seek its improvement. 
It has been cast out as vile ; and not only 
has the righteous sentence of its doom 
been pronounced, but it has been exe- 
cuted ; for " God sending his own Son in 
the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, 
condemned sin in the flesh." ^ Blessed 
be His name. He struck at the very root 
of the evil, at sin in the flesh or in our 
nature ; and yet, in His adorable grace, 
the blow fell not uj)on us, but upon His 
own Son, "for he hath made him to be 
sin for us, who knew no sin ; that w^e 
might be made the righteousness of God 
in him."'^ 

Sin, then, in its broadest and deepest 
sense, including both actual transgressions 
and the de2:)ravity of our nature, has 
already been judged and condemned and 

1 Isa. i. 6. 2 j»oin. viii. 3. ^ 2 Cor. v. 21. 



204 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

punished, so far as the believer is con- 
cerned, in the person of Jesus Christ, 
" who his own self bare our sins in his 
own body on the tree;"^ who "appeared 
to put aw^ay sin [not sins only, but sin, 
the poisonous root down in our nature] 
by the sacrifice of himself ;" ^ and on the 
ground of that ample and atoning sacri- 
fice, the Holy Ghost proceeds to impart 
a new nature, to give a new life, to form 
a new creation in Christ through faith in 
His name as He is made known to us in 
the Gospel. But, dear reader, you are 
laying up for yourself much sorrow and 
trouble if you fail to remember that the 
" flesh'^ in a Christian is no better than 
the " flesh" in an infidel. " That which is 
born of the flesh is flesh," and on becom- 
ing "the children of God by faith in 
Christ Jesus," we do not cease to become 
the children of Adam. It is true that 
" ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, 
if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in 

1 1 Pet. ii. 24. '^ Heb. ix. 26. 



XO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 205 

you;"^ but it is equally true that the 
flesh is in you ; and you will find it to be 
the same flesh that it was before you be- 
lieved the testimony of the Gospel, and 
wxre thus " born again." Forgetfulness 
or ignorance of this fact has cast many 
young believers, and many old ones too, 
into the depths of despondency, and made 
them all their lifetime subject to bondage 
through fear of death. They have been 
taught to expect a gradual change and 
increasing sanctification of the old nature 
until, as I have heard eminent ministers 
exj)ress it, the Spirit puts the finishing 
touch on the Christian in his dying hour, 
who is thus made meet to be a partaker 
of the inheritance of the saints in light. 
Now the fact is, he was made meet the 
moment he was in Christ by faith ; for 
the apostle, in behalf of all Christians 
alike, gives '' thanks unto the Father 
which hath made us meet to be partakers 
of the inheritance of the saints in light ; "^ 

1 Rom. viii. 9. 2 QqI i 12. 

.18 



206 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

and as to tlie gradual change and im- 
provement of the old nature, I boldly 
challenge the experience of every in- 
telligent, thoughtful believer to testify 
whether it is not the merest delusion. 
Does he find that it is a whit better after 
ten, twenty or forty years than it was the 
day he confessed Christ? Nay, does he 
not find that it is precisely the same, ex- 
cept that there is a growing conviction of 
its exceeding sinfulness ? True, he may 
be enabled through the indwelling Spirit 
to subdue it more thoroughly, but unless 
it is constantly "mortified" and "kept 
under," it will spring up in all its orig- 
inal deformity, and obscure the shining 
of the new nature. Careful observation 
also will convince you that a Christian 
carries with him, along the whole prog- 
ress of his earthly journey, the same 
characteristics, the same peculiarities, the 
same nature he had previous to his con- 
version ; and though it is now hated and 
held down, ever and anon it rises into 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINXER IN THE LAW. 1107 

view, and, when faith falters, extorts the 
cry, " O wretched man that I am ! who 
shall deliver me from the body of this 
death ?''^ If it is the fact that the old 
nature of the Christian must undergo 
this gradual and progressive change for 
the better, it is unaccountable that the 
most abandoned sinners, like the dying 
thief, sometimes pass in an hour from 
the low^est depths of iniquity into the 
paradise of God ; and that the most de- 
voted saints, like David, are guilty of 
fearful falls that leave a dark stain on 
the record of their lives ; since, accord- 
ing to the theory that the old nature 
ceases to be what it was, there should not 
be found in it any power to lust, or to 
plan a murder, or to commit any other 
heinous sin. It is astonishing, therefore, 
that so many excellent ministers of the 
gospel persist in speaking of regeneration 
as a change wrought in the old nature 
imtil it reaches perfection at the moment 

^ Rom. vii. 24. 



208 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

of death, when their views are not only 
directly in the face of the Scriptures, but 
flatly contradicted by the experience and 
observation of their hearers. 

The preachers of a former age, when 
a sounder theology prevailed, spoke far 
otherwise, as did Ralph Erskine, who 
was in the habit of calling the Christian 
" half devil and half saint ; " and as did 
Stillingfleet, bishop of Worcester, Eng- 
land, in the seventeenth century, who 
wrote, " In an unconverted person there 
is but one nature ; in a real Christian 
there are two natures ; the one is called 
the flesh ; the other the Spirit." This I 
think expresses the precise difference be- 
tween the unbeliever and the believer; 
the former has but one nature, while the 
latter has two natures; but of course I 
do not mean to say he has two souls. 
The second man, the Lord from heaven, 
has two natures in one person, dwelling 
together without admixture, change, or 
confusion, yet He has but one soul. Web- 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE EAW. 209 

ster defines the word nature as " the es- 
sence, essential qualities, or attributes of 
a thing, which constitute it what it is;" 
and I affirm that " the essence, essential 
qualities, or attributes" which belong to 
man when he is born into the world con- 
tinue with him unchanged to the end ; 
and that when he is born again another 
thing is communicated to him, " the es- 
sence, essential qualities, or attributes" of 
which link him to God and constitute 
him truly a child of God. Of the one 
nature it is written, " he that committeth 
sin is of the devil ; for the devil sinneth 
from the beginning."^ Of the other 
nature it is written, " Whosoever is born 
of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed 
remaineth in him ; and he cannot sin, 
because he is born of God."^ Of the 
one it is written, " The old man, which is 
corruj)t according to the deceitful lusts." '^ 
Of the other it is written, ''The new 
man, which after God is created in right- 

1 1 John iii. 8. '^ 1 Jolm iii. 9. ^ Eph. iv. 22. 

18* 



210 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

eousness and true holiness/'^ Of one it 
is written, " They are of the world : there- 
fore speak they of the world, and the 
world heareth them."^ Of the other it 
is written, " Whatsoever is born of God 
overcometh the world." '^ 

The sharp and unchanged contrast be- 
tween the two natures as presented in the 
Bible might be continued at great length, 
but enough, probably, has been said to 
convince you that if you are looking for 
the gradual sanctification of the old na- 
ture, instead of trusting in the accom- 
plished sacrifice of Christ, you will be 
woefully disappointed. You will find 
that the old nature remains the old na- 
ture in spite of all your struggles and 
tears and vows. "No man putteth a 
piece of new cloth into an old garment ; 
for that which is put in to fill it up taketh 
from the garment, and the rent is made 
worse. Neither do men put new wine 
into old bottles : else the bottles break, 

1 Eph. iv. 24. 2 I joi^j^ iv 5 3 i j^j^j^ ^ 4 



NO HOPE FOR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 211 

and the wine runneth out, and the bottles 
perish : but they put new wine into new 
bottles, and both are preserved."^ If 
men are not guilty of the folly described 
here by the Saviour, neither is the Lord ; 
for He just casts aside the old garment, 
the old bottles, the old nature, as con- 
demned and worthless, and gives unto us 
" exceeding great and precious promises : 
that by these ye might be partakers of 
the divine nature,"^ and ^'in Christ a 
new creation." It is all in Christ, for 
"they that are Christ's have crucified 
the flesh with the affection and lusts." ^ 
" Knowing this, that our old man is [was] 
crucified with him."^ '^I am [have 
been] crucified with Christ."^ The scene 
of this crucifixion is not in ourselves — as 
so many imagine, to their own perpetual 
discomfort and sorrow — but it was on 
Calvary, for when Christ was crucified 
the believer w^as crucified ; when Christ 

1 Matt. ix. 16, 17. 2 2 Pet. i. 4. ^ Gal. v. 24. 

* Eom. vi. 6. 5 Gal. ii. 20. 



212 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

died the believer died ; when Christ was 
buried the believer was buried ; when 
Christ was quickened the believer was 
quickened ; when Christ arose the be- 
liever arose ; when Christ was seated in 
the heavenly places the believer was 
seated together with Him, for ever past 
condemnation, and judgment, and death, 
and standing in the light and glory of 
the new creation, an heir of God and 
joint-heir wath Christ, saved now and 
saved for ever. 

This will come up again more fully 
hereafter, but for the present I ask you 
to consider that if you were perfectly 
obedient to the law in your outward life, 
and if you were the most prominent 
member of what is called by various de- 
nominations the only true Church, you 
would require something else as long as 
the old nature remains the old nature, 
and as long as it is true that " ye must 
be born again." The worst need noth- 
ing more than this, but the best can 



NO HOPE FQR THE SINNER IN THE LAW. 213 

do with nothing less. Thanks to God, 
there is nothing, nothing whatever, be- 
tween the worst of sinners and the gra-. 
cious Saviour, as I shall now proceed to 
show. 



CHAPTER XI. 

NOTHING BETWEEN THE SINNER AND THE 
SAVIOUR. 

•'But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this 
wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into 
heaven ? (that is, to bring Christ down from above.) Or, 
Who shall descend into the deep? (tliat is, to bring up 
Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it ? The 
word is nigh unto thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy 
heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach."— 
Romans x. 6-8. 

'HE law was given by Moses, but 
grace and truth came by Jesus 
Christ."-^ The law says, Do and 
be saved ; grace says, Believe and 
be saved. The law says. Do and live; 
grace says, Live and do. The law says, 
''The soul that sinneth, it shall die;"^ 
grace says, " Deliver him from going 
down to the pit : I have found a ran- 
som."^ The law says, " If a man have a 

1 John i. 17. 2 Ezek. xyiii. 4. ^ Job xxxiii. 24. 
214 




THE SAVIOUR >;EAR THE SINNER. 215 

stubborn and rebellious son, which will 
not obey the voice of his father, or the 
voice of his mother, and that, when they 
have chastened him, will not hearken 
unto them : then shall his father and his 
mother lay hold on him, and bring him 
out unto the elders of his city, and unto 
the gate of his place ; and they shall say 
unto the elders of his city, This our son 
is stubborn and rebellious, he will not 
obey our voice ; he is a glutton and a 
drunkard. And all the men of his city 
shall stone him with stones that he die : 
so shalt thou put away evil from among 
you ; and all Israel shall hear, and fear."^ 
Grace says, concerning the wretched 
prodigal, although " stubborn and rebel- 
lious,'' a " glutton and a drunkard," that 
"when he was yet a great way off his 
father saw him, and had compassion, and 
ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed 
liim."^ The law says, "Lay hold on 
him;" grace says, "Bring forth the best 

1 Deut, xxi. 18-21. 2 1^^^^ ^^^ 20. 



216 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

robe, and put it on him."^ Tlie law 
says, " Stone him ; " grace says, '' Put a 
ring on his liancl, and shoes on his feet."^ 
The law says, " Cursed is every one that 
continueth not in all things which are 
written in the book of the law to do 
them;"^ grace, speaking only of believ- 
ers, says, " Christ hath redeemed us from 
the curse of the law, being made a curse 
for us:'' 

This shows us ]3recisely how we are de- 
livered from the curse of the law, for it 
is said, " Christ hath redeemed us, being- 
made a curse for us." He was " made of 
a woman, made under the law, to redeem 
them that were under the law, that we 
might receive the adoption of sons."^ 
The law, therefore, has not been set aside, 
but satisfied. It has not been trampled 
under foot, but it has triumphed in 
the infliction of the threatened penalty 
against sin ; only the penalty has, in 

1 Luke XV. 22. ^ j^^^^ ^y^ 22. ^ Gal. iii. 10. 
*Gal. iii. 13. ^Gal. iv. 4, 5. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 217 

amazing grace, fallen upon the person of 
the sinner's Divine Substitute. The word 
penalty is defined by Worcester as " pun- 
ishment, whether in property or in per- 
son, imposed by law or by judicial de- 
cision." Webster says it means, " The 
suffering in person or property which is 
annexed by law or judicial decision to 
the commission of a crime, offence, or 
trespass, as a punishment." When I 
affirm, then, that the threatened penalty 
of God's law against sin fell upon Christ, 
I wish to be understood as asserting that 
He endured precisely the kind and de- 
gree of suffering or punishment which 
the law demanded on account of sin, as 
necessary to procure the comj^lete deliv- 
erance and entire redemption of all who 
believe on Him. He endured the pen- 
alty in the fullest and truest sense, be- 
cause penalty is what the law exacts in 
order to vindicate its insulted majesty and 
meet its righteous claims, and this is what 
Christ did when He suffered on the cross. 

19 



218 THE WAY MADE PLAI:N. 

If a man were put in prison for debt, 
and a friend should pay the full amount 
to the creditor, it would be impossible in 
strict justice to retain the debtor in con- 
finement, because the law would be satis- 
fied — not by anything the prisoner could 
do, but by what his friend does as his 
representative and in his place. His 
farther detention in prison after the dis- 
charge of the debt would be grossly 
illegal and tyrannical. If a monarch 
should condemn one of his subjects to 
death for treason, and then permit his 
own son to suffer instead of the insur- 
gent, it would be impossible in strict jus- 
tice to execute the threatened sentence 
upon the person of the traitor. His 
death under such circumstances would 
shake the very foundations of the gov- 
ernment and destroy all confidence in 
the integrity of the ruler. A Christian 
teacher states in a recent periodical that 
there were two puj)ils in his school who 
were warmly attached to each other, and 



THE SAVIOUK NEAR THE SINNER. 219 

yet totally unlike in disposition and de- 
portment. One was a model scholar, 
obedient, promj)t, and perfect in his les- 
sons and conduct, while the other had 
attained a bad distinction by his indo- 
lence and waywardness. On a certain 
occasion he was about to inflict punish- 
ment upon the unruly boy for some mis- 
demeanor, when the good boy stepped 
forward and said in substance, " I know 
he deserves punishment, and your au- 
thority must be maintained and the rules 
of the school enforced, but please punish 
me in his stead, for it will answer the 
same purpose as if you punished him, and 
I cannot bear to see him suffer.'^ The 
teacher, wishing to illustrate the great cen- 
tral truth of the Bible setting forth Christ 
as the Substitute for His people, bearing 
their sins, complied wdth the request ; 
and then calling back the astonished and 
weeping scholar whose offence had de- 
manded the infliction of the penalty, and 
whose heart seemed to be deeply touched 



220 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

by the generous self-sacrifice of his friend, 
he told him that he must endure the pun- 
ishment in his own person. At once, it 
is said, eyery hand was lifted and every 
voice in the room was raised in indignant 
protest, the scholars together exclaiming, 
" Oh no ! that would not be just to the 
noble boy who has borne the punishment, 
and for his sake not a stroke can fall upon 
the bad boy." 

These illustrations come far short of 
presenting fully the work of Christ in 
our behalf, because in the cases of the 
debtor and the traitor and the disobedi- 
ent pupil there was a mere escape from 
punishment, without peace of conscience, 
without refuge from fears of the future, 
without restoration to their good stand- 
ing, while, as we have already seen, 
'' Christ is the end of the law^ for right- 
eousness to every one that believeth." 
But they serve at least to clear the point 
we are now considering, that Christ hav- 
ing been " made a curse for us," it is im- 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 221 

possible for God, who is '' faitliful and 
jiist/^ to inflict the penalty of His satis- 
fied law npon those in whose stead it has 
once been endured by His only-begotten 
and well-beloved Son. " For when we 
were yet without strength, in due time 
Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely 
for a righteous man will one die : yet per- 
adventure for a good man some would 
even dare to die. But God commendeth 
his love toward us, in that while we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us.''^ If the 
phrase, to die for a righteous man and 
for a good man, means to die in the 
place, room, and stead of a righteous or 
good man so as to keep him from dying, 
then, beyond question, the distinct state- 
ment of the Holy Ghost declaring that 
Christ died for the ungodly and for us 
means that He died in the place, room, 
and stead of the ungodly, and the "us" 
who are believers. The stupendous difii- 
culty in the way of the sinner's salvation 

1 Eom. V. 6-8. 
19* 



222 THE WAY MADE PLAI:N\ 

was the claim of God's violated law, de- 
manding by all the perfections of the 
Divine Being, and by all the necessities 
of His government, that sin should be 
punished ; but when Jehovah (or Jah- 
veh, the coming One), of w^hom the pro- 
phets sung, " He will magnify the law 
and make it honourable,"^ descended 
from the throne of universal sovereignty, 
and shrouded His divinity in human 
flesh, and bowed His head in the shame- 
ful death of the cross, the law has no 
farther claim upon believers for whom 
this- death was endured, but, sheathing its 
flaming sw^ord, it joins with mercy in the 
sweet invitation, " Ho, every one that 
thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he 
that hath no money ; come ye, buy, and 
eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk with- 
out money and without price." ^ 

It is most important in the present 
discussion to keep in mind that the sac- 
rificial death of Christ has already been 

1 Isa. xlii. 21. 2 ig^. Iv. 1. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 223 

endured, and His atoning work already 
a<3Complished. " He was w^ounded for 
our transgressions, he was bruised for our 
iniquities : the chastisement of our peace 
was upon him ; and with his stripes we 
are healed. All we like sheep have gone 
astray : we have turned every one to his 
own way ; and the Lord hath laid on 
him the iniquity of us all."^ " Who w^as 
delivered for our offences, and was raised 
again for our justification."^ "Christ 
died for our sins according to the Scrip- 
tures."^ God "hath made him to be sin 
for us, who knew no sin ; that we might 
be made the righteousness of God in 
him."^ He " gave himself for our sins."^ 
" Christ also loved the church, and gave 
himself for it." ^ He "became obedient 
unto death, even the death of the cross."' 
" Ye turned to God from idols to serve 
the living and true God ; and to wait for 

1 Isa. liii. 5, G. ^ j^q^i. iv. 25. -^ 1 Cor. xv. 3. 

* 2 Cor. V. 21. 5 Qal. i. 4. ^ Eph. v. 25. 

^ Phil. ii. 8. 



224 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

his Son from heaven, whom he raised 
from the dead, eyen Jesus, which deliv- 
ered us from the wrath to come."^ " Now 
once in the end of the world hath he ap- 
peared to put away sin by the sacrifice of 
himself.''^ '^ Christ was once offered to 
bear the sins of many."^ ^^Who his 
own self bare our sins in his own body 
on the tree."^ ^^ Christ also hath once 
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, 
that he might bring us to God." ^ " Christ 
hath suffered for us in the flesh." ^ 

You will observe that in these texts 
not only is the death of Christ directly 
connected with our sins, and described as 
vicarious, or endured in our stead, and 
represented as furnishing the only ground 
upon which we can be saved, but the past 
tense is used in every passage, to indicate 
that the great transaction has already 
taken place. More than eighteen hun- 
dred years ago our redemption was ac- 

1 1 Thess. i. 9, 10. 2 Heb. ix. 26. ^ jjeb. ix. 28. 
4 1 Pet. ii. 24. & i Pet. iii. 18. 6 1 pet. iv. i. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 225 

complislied, and by the power of faith 
even the Old Testament saints regarded 
it as achieved in their day, because their 
impressive tyj)es daily proclaimed "the 
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb 
without blemish and without spot : who 
verily was foreordained before the foun- 
dation of the world." ^ The Saviour in 
His adorable love and pity did not wait 
for man to seek Him, but came unasked 
to our lost world and undeserving race. 
He did not come that God might love us, 
but because God did love us, and love us 
while we were " ungodly," and " sinners," 
and " enemies," and so love us that He 
gave His only begotten Son to take our 
place under His dishonoured law, and en- 
dure its dreadful penalty in our stead. 
The Father, as representing the unsullied 
holiness of the Divine nature, and the in- 
violable majesty of the Divine law, and 
the unspeakable interests of the Divine 
government, met the Son at Calvary 

1 1 Pet. i. 19, 20. 
P 



226 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

bearing upon Him the miglity load of 
our iniquities ; and there, amidst bursting 
tombs, and rending rocks, and earthquake 
shocks, and the indescribable sufferings 
of the cross that extorted the fearful cry, 
" My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me ?"^ the question of sin and sal- 
vation was once and for ever settled. 

Since that event occurred, and even 
since it was announced in the first promise 
made to our fallen parents concerning the 
seed of the woman, and in the first type 
of the coats of skins with which God's 
own hand clothed them, no other atone- 
ment has been demanded, no other sacri- 
fice has been possible, no other righteous- 
ness has been accepted ; but the gracious 
Kedeemer says in His blessed w^ord, "I 
bring near my righteousness ; it shall not 
be far off, and my salvation shall not 
tarry." ^ When the dying Jesus said, 
"It is finished,"^ and bowed His head 
and gave up the ghost. He joyfully an- 

1 Matt, xxvii. 46. ^ jg^^ ^Ivi. 13. ^ John xix. 30. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 227 

nounced that all His sacrificial sufferings 
were past ; that all the types of the law 
were answered ; that all its rites were 
abolished ; that all its claims were met ; 
that all its demands were satisfied ; that 
all its purposes w^ere secured ; that all its 
threatenings against His covenanted peo- 
ple were silenced ; that all its power to 
injure them was ended ; and that nothing 
more remained to be done but for the 
w^hole world, if it will, to rest upon this 
finished work with the calmness of an 
unfaltering confidence and in the sure 
antici]Dation of eternal glory. There is 
nothing, then, and there can be nothing 
in the nature of the case, between the 
sinner and the Saviour — no, not so much 
as the thickness of the thinnest tissue- 
paj)er or the most delicate gold-leaf. 

I know how common, alas ! it is for 
the anxious soul to be put upon a course 
of presumptuous and j)rofitless doing in 
order to be saved ; as when urged to 
enter into covenant with God to serve 



228 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Him ; or to draw up a form of solemn 
self-surrender and self-dedication ; or to 
be confirmed; or to be baptized; or to 
join the Church ; or to seek religion ; or 
to give the heart unto the Lord as the 
means of inclining Him to be gracious ; 
or to keep on praying until He will be 
merciful and answer fervent and fre- 
quent supplications. My reader, be per- 
suaded that such advice is not the Gos- 
pel, but the law, and you will never, 
never, obtain an intelligent and assured 
hope in this way. Under this law- 
preaching, as I do not hesitate to de- 
nounce the instructions too frequently 
given in the pulpit and in books intended 
for inquirers, it has come to pass that 
nearly every one who is awakened to 
consider the interests of eternity thinks 
of the blessed God as an unfeeling Gov- 
ernor whose compliance with a request is 
to be won by the force of opportunity ; 
or as a stern judge whose favour is to be 
gained by eloquent appeals and tearful 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 229 

entreaties ; or as a fickle and foolish 
father who is at length overcome by the 
persistent pleadings of a child to give 
what he is not disposed to grant. 

Hence, we seldom find sinners coming 
at once to Christ after conviction, and, 
through an immediate and unquestioning 
faith in the testimony of His word, so 
promptly receiving a full and finished 
salvation as to understand the meaning 
of the Bible when it says, " We which 
have believed do enter into rest,'^^ and 
" rejoice evermore."^ Not only days, but 
generally weeks or months, and some- 
times years, pass away while they are 
trying to be fit and to be good enough to 
come ; and then, after making a profession 
of religion, as they very j)roperly call it, 
their whole subsequent life is apt to pass 
away in uncertain hopes and vague, unsat- 
isfying conceptions of the entire subject. 
They imagine that to attain salvation 
they must climb as it were some steep 

1 Heb. iv. 3. 2 1 xhess. v. 16. 

20 



230 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

and laborious ascent or plunge into some 
profound abyss, not remembering that 
" the righteousness which is of faith," 
which is received through faith, which is 
the result of faith, which is ours by faith, 
" speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine 
heart. Who shall ascend into heaven? 
(that is, to bring Christ down from above.) 
Or, Who shall descend into the deep? 
(that is, to bring up Christ again from 
the dead.) But what saith it? The 
word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, 
and in thy heart : that is, the word of 
faith, which we preach.'' 

Oh, if the inquirer who reads these 
lines only knew how nigh salvation is to 
him this very moment, surely he w^ould 
eagerly lay hold of it without the slight- 
est delay. Nay, he does not have to lay 
hold of it ; he has just to receive it in all 
its completeness. It is nigher to you, 
my friend, than the door, than any article 
of furniture in the room where you are 
sitting, than any object within your reach, 



THE SAVIOUK NEAR THE SINNER. 231 

for it is as nigh as your mouth and your 
heart. You are not asked to stir from 
your seat, to lift your finger, to move an 
eyelash, to wait a single second, but now, 
just now, and just as you are, to believe, 
and to enter straightway into everlasting 
life. There is no need to plead with God 
to be merciful, for He is already merciful, 
and has given the most convincing exhi- 
bition of His mercy in the wonderful 
provisions He has made for your recovery 
from the dominion and ruinous conse- 
quences of sin. There is no need to be- 
seech Him to love you, for He already 
loves vou, and has furnished the most 
touching manifestation of that love of 
which the mind of man or of an angel 
can conceive. " Some years ago two gen- 
tlemen were riding together, and as they 
were about to separate, one addressed the 
other thus : ' Do you ever read your 
Bible ?' ' Yes ; but I get no benefit from 
it, because, to tell you the truth, I feel I 
do not love God.' ' No more did I,' re- 



232 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

plied the other, ^but God loved me.' 
This answer j)roduced such an effect upon 
his friend that, to use his own words, it 
it was as if one had lifted him off the 
saddle into the skies. It opened up to 
his soul at once the great truth that it is 
not how much I love God, but how much 
God loves me." 

This is indeed the great truth, ^^for 
God so loved the world [the guilty, sin- 
ful, ruined world] that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life."^ ^^In this was manifested the 
love of God toward us, because that God 
sent his only begotten Son into the world, 
that we might live through him. Here- 
in is love, not that w^e loved God, but 
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be 
the propitiation for our sins." ^ " We love 
him, because he first loved us;"^ and if 
you attempt to reverse this Divine order 
so as to love Him first that He may love 

1 John iii. 16. ^ i j^^n iv. 9, 10. ^ 1 John iv. 19. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 233 

you in i^eturn, you will soon be involved 
in hopeless confusion and darkness. The 
devil would^ like to persuade you that 
God cannot love you as you are, and 
hence he is constantly suggesting to pa- 
rents to tell their little children that God 
will not love them if they are naughty, 
but "he is a liar, and the father of it."^ 
And when he whispers to your soul that 
you must do something, or get to be 
something, different from what you now 
are before God can love you, he is whis- 
pering a lie; for God loves you at this 
very instant, and sees you afar off, and 
yearns over you with unutterable tender- 
ness, and longs to take you to His heart 
of love and make you happy for ever. 

1 John viii. 44. 
20 * 




CHAPTEE XII. 

NOTHING BETWEEN THE SINNER AND THE 
SAVIOUR, 

I HO, then, puts the slightest barrier 
between the sinner and the Sa- 
viour ? Not the Saviour Himself, 
for His language is, " Come unto 
me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest. Take 
my yoke upon you, and learn of me:''^ 
but you will observe that He does not bid 
us take His yoke until we first come, 
labouring and heavy laden with our sins 
or sorrows, nor does He expect us to learn 
until He first gives us rest. You will 
find upon examination that this is the 
order always laid down in the word of 
God. Salvation is first bestowed as a 

1 Matt. xi. 28, 29. 
234 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 235 

free gift, and then service follows ; privi- 
lege is first granted, and then responsi- 
bility ensues; relationship with God as 
our Father is first established by grace, 
and then the affections of children are 
expected ; our standing in Christ is first 
secured through faith in His blood, and 
then obligation is imposed. There is no 
telling the amount of evil that has fol- 
lowed man's attempt to reverse this order, 
and I beg you to remember that as a sin- 
ner you have nothing, nothing, to do but 
to come to Christ as you are ; by which 
I mean, you have nothing to do but to 
believe, u23on the sure testimony of God's 
word, that He is able and willing to save 
your soul, and to save it without delay. 
" In the last day, that great day of the feast, 
Jesus stood and cried, saying. If any man 
thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." ^ 
In the eagerness of His desire to save, 
He arose from the sitting posture usual 
with Jewish teachers, and stood, that His 

1 John vii. 37. 



236 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

voice might ring like a trumpet above 
the crowd, crying, " If any man thirst, 
let him come unto me" — come, thirsty 
and needy, and not because he has done 
something to quench his thirst and satisfy 
his need. 

" Let not conscience make you linger, 
Nor of fitness fondly dream ; 
All the fitness He requireth 
Is to feel your need of Him ; 

This He gives you — 
'Tis the Spirit's rising beam." 

There is a question just here I wish 
you to consider, and it is this : Are there 
many ways by which men are saved, or 
is there only one way ? I know, if you 
accept the Scriptures as inspired, that you 
will reply. There is only one way ; for it 
is written, " He that believeth on the Son 
[no matter who he is] hath everlasting 
life : and he that believeth not the Son 
[no matter who he is] shall not see life; 
but the wrath of God abideth on him."^ 
" Neither is there salvation in any other : 

1 John iii. 36. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 237 

for there is none other name under heaven 
given among men, whereby we must be 
saved." ^ This, then, prepares the way 
for another question : How was the dying 
thief saved? There are many who, in 
answering this question, seem to take it 
for granted that he was a better thief 
than the other, w^ho was not saved, but 
not so does the word of God speak of 
him. Matthew informs us that "the 
thieves also [that is, both of them], which 
were crucified with him, cast the same in 
his teeth." ^ Mark says, "They [that is, 
both of them] that were crucified with 
him reviled him."^ The fact is, when 
he was nailed to the cross he joined his 
guilty companion and the brutal crowd 
in heaping insults and reproaches uj)on 
the dying Saviour ; but God determined 
to show what His grace can do, and 
hence flashed into his ruined soul con- 
viction of sin which was the " Spirit's 
rising beam." Then follows the humble 

1 Acts iv. 12. 2 jyxatt. xxvii. 44. ^ Mark xv. 32. 



238 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

confession of guilt, and the sublime tes- 
timony concerning Jesus, that " this man 
hath done nothing amiss." ^ I call it sub- 
lime testimony, because it was delivered 
in the face of a scoffing world that had 
united to condemn and crucify the Bon of 
God. The Jews spurned His claims as 
the Messiah ; the Romans scourged Him 
as a seditious fanatic or impostor; and 
the confidence of His own disciples re- 
ceived a staggering blow when they saw 
Him dragged like a common felon through 
the streets and suspended upon the in- 
strument of shame and torture. 

Truly there was little appearance of 
royalty about that thorn-crowned brow, 
and that bleeding back mangled by the 
cruel lash, and those hands and feet 
pierced with nails ; but the poor thief 
had faith to say, " Lord, remember me 
when thou comest into thy kingdom."^ 
He had no time to get better ; he had no 
time to make himself fit to come to Christ ; 

^ Luke xxiii. 4L '^ Luke xxiii. 42. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 239 

he had no time to observe rites and or- 
dinances ; but he had time to believe that 
the meek Sufferer at his side was what He 
claimed to be, and to trust in Him for 
some humble place in the kingdom which 
he believed that Sufferer would in due 
time establish on the earth, according to 
the ScrijDtures. These Scriptures say, 
" Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the 
Christ is born of God;"^ and this is 
what the dying thief did, and it is all 
he did, when forth came the sweet assur- 
ance from the pallid lips of the Saviour 
mighty to save in death and through 
death, " Verily, I say unto thee. To-day 
shalt thou be wdth me in paradise ;"^ and 
a few hours later the ransomed sinner 
went his way, the first glad herald from 
earth to announce to the rejoicing multi- 
tude on high that the work of redemp- 
tion was finished. And now, if it be true 
that there is only one w^ay of salvation, 
and therefore that all men are to be saved 

1 1 John V. 1. 2 L^^i^e xxiii. 43. 



240 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the same way the thief was saved, what 
should be done with the preaching that 
puts the smallest obstacle, though it be 
nothing more than a straw, between the 
sinner and the Saviour? Why, toss it 
overboard as an accursed thing, and make 
haste to believe, because God has said it, 
that " the blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
cleanseth us from all sin."^ 

But let us glance at the testimony of 
the apostles who received from their Mas- 
ter the great commission, " Go ye into 
all the w^orld, and preach the gosj)el to 
every creature;"^ or, in other words. 
Preach the good news, the glad tidings 
of the boundless love of God and the 
finished work of Christ. We learn that 
on the day of Pentecost the tloly Ghost 
came down in witness of our Lord's as- 
cension to the right hand of the Father, 
and wonderful results followed His mani- 
fested presence among the disciples. There 
were at that time in Jerusalem " Par- 

1 1 John i. 7. 2 Mark xvi. 15. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 241 

thians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the 
dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, 
and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 
Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and 
in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and 
strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 
Cretes and Arabians."^ To this mixed 
multitude, together Avith many of the in- 
habitants of the city, Peter and the rest 
of the apostles proclaimed Jesus and the 
resurrection. " Then they that gladly 
received his word were baptized : and the 
same day there were added unto them 
about three thousand souls. And they 
continued steadfastly in the apostles' doc- 
trine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
bread, and in prayers. . . . And they, 
continuing daily with one accord in the 
temple, and breaking bread from house 
to house, did eat their meat with glad- 
ness and singleness of heart, praising 
God, and having favour with all the peo- 
ple. And the Lord added to the Church 

1 Acts ii. 9-11. 
21 Q 



242 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

daily such as should be saved." ^ There 
was no delay here ; no waiting to get bet- 
ter ; no striving to be fit to come ; no 
probing into their hearts to test their 
feelings, whether they had repented 
enough, and whether they loved God 
enough, and whether they believed aright, 
but immediately upon receiving the word 
as true, the same day there were added 
to the Church about three thousand re- 
joicing converts. 

We look a little farther, and find that 
" a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great 
authority under Candace, queen of the 
Ethiopians, who had charge of all her 
treasure, and had come to Jerusalem 
for to worship, was returning, and sitting 
in the chariot, read Esaias the prophet."'^ 
He was an anxious inquirer, as we say in 
these days, for, having become utterly 
dissatisfied with heathenism, he had gone 
to the city of David to bow before the 
true God, and was still diligently seeking 

1 Acts ii. 41, 42, 46, 47. '^ Acts viii. 27, 28. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 243 

the way of life. Philip, one of the seven 
deacons elected by the Church to look 
after the poor, was commanded by the 
Holy Ghost to join himself to the chariot 
of the officer. Having promptly obeyed 
the direction, although it took him from 
great crowds that attended his ministry 
in Samaria, to preach to a single sinner, 
he asked him whether he understood 
what he was reading. " How can I," 
was the reply, " except some man should 
guide me ? And he desired Philip that 
he w^ould come up and sit with him." 
The place he was reading was the fifty- 
third chapter of Isaiah, which so clear- 
ly and beautifully sets forth the aton- 
ing work of Christ for the certain and 
complete salvation of His i3eople, and 
" Philip opened his mouth, and began 
at the same Scripture, and preached unto 
him Jesus." Having shown that the 
prophet predicted the death of Him who 
was crucified between two thieves, he may 
have dwelt a little upon the sixth verse 



244 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

of that remarkable cliaj)ter Avliicli has 
brought relief to many troubled souls. 
He may have slowly read the first clause, 
" All we like sheep have gone astray/' 
and fixing the attention of his interested 
hearer, pointedly asked, " Do you believe 
that ?" " Oh yes," would be the reply ; 
"that describes my condition precisely, 
for like a silly sheep I have wandered 
from the path of duty and of safety." 
He may then have read the second clause, 
" We have turned every one to his own 
way," and asked, " Do you believe that ?" 
" Indeed I do," would be the answer, 
"for I have followed the counsels of my 
own heart and trusted in my own right- 
eousness." He may then have read the 
last clause, "And the Lord hath laid on 
Him the iniquity of us all," and solemnly 
said, " Do you believe that ? You be- 
lieve you have gone astray like a lost 
sheep; you believe you have turned to 
your own way ; and now do you believe, 
because God hath said it, that He has 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SIXNER. 245 

laid your iniquities upon Christ the Sin- 
bearer ? If so, they cannot be upon you, 
and therefore you are a saved man." 
At all events, however Philip may have 
talked to him, he replied, " I believe that 
Jesus Christ is the Son of God," and was 
immediately baptized, and " went on his 
w^ay rejoicing."^ Just so soon as Jesus 
was preached he received the testimony 
concerning Him as true, and hence pur- 
sued his journey filled with peace and 
gladness, because his thoughts were not 
occupied about himself, but about Christ 
and His finished w^ork. 

Once more, we are told that Paul and 
Silas were preaching in the city of Phil- 
ippi, where a great uproar occurred as the 
result of a miracle wrought on "^ cer- 
tain damsel possessed with a si3irit of 
divination." The preachers were seized, 
dragged before the magistrates, savagely 
beaten, and committed to prison, with a 
command to the jailer to keep them 

1 Acts viii. 39. 
21* 



246 THE WAY MADE PLAIN, 

safely ; " who, having received such a 
charge, thrust them into the inner prison, 
and made their feet fast in the stocks." 
But the hand of violence could not touch 
the resurrection life they had received 
from the Saviour, nor could the stroke of 
suffering mar its happiness; and there- 
fore at midnight they " prayed, and sang 
praises unto God : and the prisoners heard 
them." He who had sent them to Eu- 
rope determined to plant the banner of 
the cross on this new continent, whether 
men would hear or forbear, "and sud- 
denly there was a great earthquake, so 
that the foundations of the prison were 
shaken; and immediately all the doors 
were opened, and every one's bands were 
loosed." The jailer, awakened by the 
tumult, naturally inferred that the pris- 
oners had fled, and, knowing that he 
would be held accountable for their es- 
cape, Avas on the point of committing 
suicide, when Paul arrested his uplifted 
hand by calling with a loud voice, " Do 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 247 

thyself no harm ; for we are all here." 
Then conviction seems to have fastened 
on the man's conscience, and he was per- 
suaded by the extraordinary events he 
had witnessed that the poor girl had un- 
consciously uttered the truth when she 
followed Paul and his companions for 
many days through the streets, crying, 
" These men are the servants of the most 
high God, which show unto us the way 
of salvation." Accordingly, " he called 
for a light, and sprang in, and came 
trembling, and fell down before Paul and 
Silas, and brought them out, and said. 
Sirs, what must I do to be saved ?" This 
is a very earnest, but very plain and sim- 
ple, question, and the answer is equally 
plain and simple. Do f Why do you 
ask about doing ? You must do nothing 
but '' believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." 
As he was an ignorant heathen who prob- 
ably had never heard before of Jesus 
Christ, of course he needed instruction ; 



248 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

" and they spake unto him the word of the 
Lord, and to all that were in his house. 
And he took them the same hour of the 
night, and washed their stripes; and was 
baptized, he and all his, straightway. And 
when he had brought them into his house, 
he set meat before them, and rejoiced, 
believing in God with all his house.'' ^ 

In considering these examples of in- 
stantaneous conversion it is useless to 
reply that the times have changed since 
Christ and the apostles preached. It is 
true the times have changed, but the 
word of God has not changed, and man's 
need has not changed, and human na- 
ture has not changed, and the way of 
salvation has not changed. It is true 
that most of the conversions in our day 
occur only at the close of a protracted 
period of darkness, and effort, and prayer, 
and reading, and reflection, and repent- 
ance ; but this only goes to show how far 
we have departed from the simplicity and 

1 Acts xvi. 32-34. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 249 

blessedness of the gospel as at first pro- 
claimed, when the disciples went abroad 
telling the good news of Christ's death 
on the cross for sinners, and as many as 
believed the glad tidings to be true, and 
true for themselves, straightway entered 
into life. If a friend of undoubted ve- 
racity were to enter your house or meet 
you on the street and tell you good news 
that greatly concerned your welfare, how 
long a time must elapse before you would 
believe him ? A day, a week, a month, 
a year ? Would you say to him, " I wish 
I could believe you ; I am trying to be- 
lieve you ; I must wait until I feel that 
I believe you ; I cannot realize that what 
you tell me is true;'' or would you just 
believe him and rejoice ? " Wherefore as 
the Holy Ghost saith. To-day if ye will 
hear his voice, harden not your hearts ;"^ 
and the way to harden the heart, as we 
learn from the chapter in which this text 
is found, is to continue in unbelief. " Be- 

1 Heb. iii. 7, 8. 



250 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

hold, now is the accepted time ; behold, 
now is the day of salvation,"^ and the 
now refers not only to the gospel age as 
distinguished from the dispensation of 
the law, but to this passing moment. 

The way some men set forth what they 
call the gospel w^ould require their hear- 
ers to spend about four years in college 
and three years in a theological seminary 
in order to be saved, and even then they 
could not be certain of their salvation. 
But God the Father says, " Now ! " and God 
the Son says, " Now ! " and God the Spirit 
says, " Now ! " and the Bible says, " Now ! " 
and the very depths of the sinner's guilty 
and ruined nature echo the cry," Now." 
If he stays away from Christ trying to do 
something until he is as old as Methuse- 
lah, could such a thing be, at the close 
of nine hundred and sixty-nine years he 
will not be a stej) nor a hair's breadth 
nearer salvation than he was the moment 
of conviction ; and on the other hand, 

1 2 Cor. vi. 2. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 251 

the moment he is in Christ by believing 
on Him he is as certainly and completely 
saved as he will be a thousand years 
afterwards. If the dying thief, after re- 
ceiving from the dying Saviour the as- 
surance of salvation, had been permitted 
to descend to the earth and to remain 
among men preaching and praying for a 
hundred years, at the end of this time he 
would not have been more certainly and 
completely saved than he was when hang- 
ing on the cross, nor would he have had 
any other ground of comfort than he had 
then, even the sure word of the Son of 
God. The certainty of salvation, there- 
fore, cannot be increased by delay, but 
while the sinner is delaying, suppose he 
should die ; w^hat then ? He has not the 
slightest assurance that he will live an 
hour longer, and hence God does not deal 
with him on the ground that he has years 
to study and struggle before he is saved, 
but says, in all the urgency of His love, 
" Now, l^o^Y, NOW!" 



252 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Inquirers meet with obstacles in trying 
to find peace simply because they persist 
in thinking of themselves instead of di- 
recting their thoughts to Christ, and to 
the object of His mission to earth, and to 
His finished work. They complain that 
they are not good enough to come. No, 
and they never will be in themselves : but 
they forget that Jesus has said, " I am 
not come to call the righteous, but sinners 
to repentance."^ ^'The Son of man is 
come to seek and to save that which was 
lost."^ "This is a faithful saying,'' says 
Paul, " and worthy of all acceptation, 
that Christ Jesus came into the world to 
save sinners; of whom I am chief." ^ 
Who was Paul, and what was he doing 
when Christ Jesus saved him ? He him- 
self tells us he was " a blasphemer, and a 
persecutor, and injurious,"* and " I verily 
thought with myself," he writes, " that I 
ought to do many things contrary to the 

1 Matt. ix. 13. 2 Luke xix. 10. 

3 1 Tim. i. 15. * 1 Tim. i. 13. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 253 

name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which 
thing I also did in Jerusalem : and many 
of the saints did I shut up in prison, 
having received authority from the chief 
priests ; and when they were put to death, 
I gave my voice against them. And I 
punished them oft in every synagogue, 
and compelled them to blaspheme ; and 
being exceedingly mad against them, I 
persecuted them even unto strange cities."^ 
Truly, Paul did nothing to make himself 
fit or good enough to come, but he was 
''a brand plucked out of the fire,''^ just 
as every other sinner is ; for all of us are 
far worse than we think ourselves to be 
even when most deeply humbled under a 
sense of our guilt. 

The fact is that out of Christ we have 
no worth or worthiness at all, do what we 
may ; but in Christ the vilest of the vile 
are infinitely worthy, for they are clothed 
with the righteousness of God. A wicked, 
swearing teamster, who had been the 

1 Acts xxvi. 9-11. 2 2ech. jii. 2. 

22 



254 -THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

terror of the neigiibourhood, was led by 
the SjDirit to believe in Jesus, and it was 
announced that he would openly confess 
the Saviour before men and partake 
of the Lord's Supper. Driving through 
a town where he was well known, he was 
met by an old woman with the question, 
" They tell me, Thomas, that you be going 
to take the Sacrament on Sunday ; is it 
true that you be ?" " By the grace of 
Christ my Saviour," he replied, "I ex- 
pect to have the privilege of showing His 
death with others who believe in Him, 
if that is what you call taking the Sacra- 
ment." ''But, Thomas, do you think 
that you be worthy ?" said the old wo- 
man. "I don't mean to reflect on ve, 
but you know what kind of man you 
have been, and what kind of life you 
have led, and do you think, Thomas, that 
you be worthy ?" " As Avorthy as any 
man in Coalford," was the reply, " for I 
am a poor worthless sinner saved by the 
grace of God through the precious blood 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 255 

of Christ. I trust in Him alone." Such 
is ever the language of faith leading the 
sinner to lose sight of self in the believ- 
ing, adoring contemplation of Christ, 
who so graciously and sweetly says, " Him 
that Cometh to me, I will in no wise cast 
out."^ 

" But I am a great sinner, sayest thou ? 
I will in no wise cast outj says Christ. 
But I am an old sinner, sayest thou ? 
Iivill in no wise cast out, says Christ 
But I am a hard-hearted sinner, sayest thou ? 
I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. 
I have served Satan all my days, sayest thou? 
I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. 
But I have sinned against light, sayest thou ? 
I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. 
But I have sinned against mercy, sayest thou? 
I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. 
I have no good thing to bring, sayest thou ? 
I will in no wise cast out, says Christ.^^ 

'' But," says the sinner, " must I not 
be born again before I can rejoice in hope 
of the glory of God ?" I reply, You are 
born again the moment you believe in the 

1 John vi. 87. 



256 THE WAY MADE PLAIN, 

Lord Jesus Christ, as has been previously 
shown. Faith is the first throb of life, 
so to speak, in the new-created man, the 
first cry of the new-born child. " Ye 
are all the children of God by faith in 
Christ Jesus." ^ "As many as received 
him, to them gave he power to become 
the sons of God, even to them that be- 
lieve on his name.''^ "Whosoever be- 
lieveth that Jesus is the Christ is born of 
God."^ "Being born again, not of cor- 
ruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the 
word of God, which liveth and abideth 
forever."^ "Of his ow^n wdll begat he 
us with the word of truth." ^ These pas- 
sages are sufficient to show that the Holy 
Ghost uses the word of God, or the w^ord 
of truth, or the Gospel, to set forth Christ 
in His Divine j)erson and atoning w^ork ; 
and wdien W'C believe on Him as there 
revealed, we are born again. We are not 
called upon to be w^orrying ourselves 

1 Gal. iii. 26. ^ j^j^^^ ^ 12. ^^ 1 John v. 1. 

4 1 Pet. i. 23. -^ James i. 18. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 257 

about regeneration, nor to be looking for 
its fruits, but to believe in Christ, know- 
ing then, according to His own teaching, 
that we are assuredly born of water (the 
scriptural symbol of the word) and of 
the Spirit. Regeneration, therefore, does 
not stand between the sinner and the Sa- 
viour ; for the new life is imparted, the 
new nature is implanted, the new man is 
formed, by the power of the Spirit through 
faith in Jesus made known in the Gospel. 
" But," says another, ''must I not repent 
before coming to Christ ?" If you mean 
as a condition upon which God will be 
merciful, or as the means of winning His 
favour, or as a preliminary work to fit you 
to approach Him, I reply, most emphat- 
ically. No, you must not. There are 
thousands who try to make a Saviour out 
of their repentance, but this is contrary 
to the Scriptures. True repentance, as 
described in the Bible, always implies 
faith in Christ, and the two cannot be 
separated. No man really repents unless 

22^ R 



258 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

he believes in Jesus, and, on the other 
hand, no man really believes in Jesus 
unless he repents, for repentance is the 
tear which the believing sinner drops 
when by faith he sees the Son of God 
extended on the cross. The word in the 
Greek, however, which is translated " re- 
pentance" in our English Bible, does not 
necessarily imply emotion of any kind, 
but simply means an " after-thought" or 
"after-mind," and hence "a change of 
mind ; " but whether this change of mind 
is accompanied with joy or sorrow de- 
pends wholly upon the cause or occasion 
which gives rise to it. About what, then, 
is the sinner called to change his mind ? 
Obviously, about God and His character, 
for he has had wrong thoughts of the Al- 
mighty all his life ; and hence it is writ- 
ten, " Let the wicked forsake his way, 
and the unrighteous man his thoughts."^ 
But surely he can never change his mind 
about his Creator until he sees "God in 

' Isa. Iv. 7. 



THE SAVIOUR NEAR THE SINNER. 259 

Christ" hating sin and yet putting sin 
away, judging evil and yet forgiving the 
evil-doer. Unless, then, by faith you 
behold the atoning sacrifice on the cross, 
it is impossible to repent, for it is said, 
"The goodness of God leadeth thee to 
repentance."^ It is not thy badness, but 
God^s goodness, thai leadeth thee to repent- 
ance, and until you believe in that good- 
ness as manifested in the gift of His well- 
beloved Son, you might as soon expect to 
obtain light by looking at darkness, or to 
receive life by looking at a corpse, as to 
repent by working at your poor, dead 
soul. Repentance, therefore, does not 
stand between the sinner and the Sa- 
viour, but it always accompanies and 
flows from faith in Christ ; for, as you at 
once observe, if you must be occupied 
with repentance before believing, it is in- 
cumbent on those who tell you to repent 
as a preliminary step that must be taken 
in order to reach salvation also to inform 

^ Rom. ii. 4. 



260 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

you how much, you must repent, and for 
what length of time. 

" But/' says another, " must I not be 
baptized before I can rest in the assur- 
ance that I am saved ?" Again I reply, 
No; not that I would undervalue bap- 
tism in its true place, but that I would 
keep it in its true place, where the Word 
of God puts it, and from which it has 
been wrested by the rude hand of legal- 
ism to "drown men in destruction and 
perdition." There is not an instance of 
Christian baptism in the ISTew Testament 
unless it was preceded by faith in Christ 
on the part of the person baptized. I 
am not referring to infant baptism, for it 
does not fall in wdth my purpose to discuss 
that question ; but, among adults, only 
believers in Jesus were baptized, and the 
common practice in these days of seek- 
ing to make Christians by the use of 
water in sprinkling, pouring, or immer- 
sion is utterly subversive of the work of 
Christ and ruinous to the souls of count- 



THE SAVIOUR NEAE THE SINNER. 261 

less thousands. It is a fact in striking 
contrast with the estimate placed upon 
baptism now that the Saviour in all 
His wonderful discourses never preached 
about it, and we know that " Jesus him- 
self baptized not."^ Not only so, but we 
find the Apostle Paul saying, " I thank 
God that I baptized none of you, but 
Crispus and Gains ; . . . and I bap- 
tized also the house of Stephanas : be- 
sides, I know not whether I baptized any 
other. For Christ sent me not to bap- 
tize, but to preach the gospel."^ When 
we add to all this that the dying thief 
was saved although he was not baptized, 
and that in thirteen of the inspired Epis- 
tles baptism is not once mentioned, and 
very seldom in the others, it is apparent 
that man in his proud and obdurate self- 
righteousness has sought to make a simple 
and significant ordinance an enemy of 
the cross of Christ. No, sinner ! baptism 
does not stand between you and the Sa- 

1 John iv. 2. 2 I Q^j.^ I 14^ 15^ 17, 



262 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

viour, but after believing you will joy- 
fully receive it, as Abraham received 
" the sign of circumcision, a seal of the 
righteousness of the faith which he had 
yet being uncircumcised."^ 

Nothing, indeed, nothing but your un- 
belief, stands between you and an instant, 
complete salvation. You do not need to 
go up to heaven for it, for that would 
imply that Christ had not come down " to 
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ; " ^ 
nor are you required to descend into the 
lower parts of the earth, for that would 
imply that Christ was not delivered for 
our offences and " raised again for justi- 
fication;"^ but the word is nigh thee, 
and so nigh that, without waiting an hour 
or a minute, without thinking of the past 
or the future, without stopping to look 
into the exercises of your mind, without 
tarrying to understand this doctrine or 
that doctrine, without pausing at regen- 
eration, or repentance, or baptism, or any- 

1 Kom. Lv. 11. 2 Heb. ix. 26. ^ j^^^^^ \^^ 25. 



THE SAVIOUK NEAR THE SINNER. 263 

tiling else, you may immediately enter 
into life, eternal life, if you truly believe 
that " Christ died for our sins according 
to the scriptures ; and that he was buried, 
and that he rose again the third day ac- 
cording to the scriptures."^ What a 
glorious salvation, and what a precious 
Saviour ! It is not by what we do, but 
by what He has done, we are saved, and 
hence in answer to your question, " What 
must I do ?" let the sweet hymn answer : 

" Nothing, eitlier great or small, 
Nothing, sinner, no ! 
Jesus did it, did it all, 
Long, long ago. 

" When He from His lofty throne 
Stoop'd to do and die, 
Everything was fully done — 
Hearken to His cry — 

" ^ It is finished : ' yes, indeed — 
Finish^ every jot. 
Sinner, this is all you need ; 
Tell me, is it not ? 

" Weary, working, plodding one, 
Wherefore toil you so ? 

1 1 Cor. XV. 3, 4. 



264 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Cease your doing ; all was done 
Long, long ago. 

" Till to Jesus' work you cling 
By a simple faith, 
* Doing' is a deadly thing — 
' Doing' ends in death. 

" Cast your deadly ' doing' down- 
Dow^n at Jesus' feet ; 
Stand IN Him, in Him alone, 
Gloriously ^ coiviPiiETE." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord 
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath 
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For 
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness ; and 
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." — 
Romans x. 9, 10. 

6^T is said that soon after the exe- 
)|| cution of Mary, Queen of Scots, a 
French lady who had been in her 
service attemjDted to assassinate 
Elizabeth, Queen of England. Having 
been arrested while hanging about the 
court, she boldly announced her name 
and design, expressing regret that she 
had failed to accomplish her purpose. 
She was brought into the presence of 
Elizabeth, who said to her, " What, think 
you, is my duty upon the hearing of 

23 265 




266 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

such a case ?" " Do you put the question 
to me as a queen or a judge ?" asked the 
prisoner. " As a queen/' was the reply. 
" Then you should grant me a pardon/' 
she answered. " But/' inquired the queen, 
" what assurance can you give me that 
you will not abuse my mercy and attempt 
my life again? Should I pardon, it 
should be based upon conditions to be 
safe from your murderous revenge in 
future." " Grace fettered by precautions — 
grace that hath conditions — is no grace," 
exclaimed the woman ; and history states 
that the remark so charmed Elizabeth 
that she immediately ordered her release, 
and bound her to her royal person ever 
afterwards by the ties of fervent gratitude 
and devoted affection. 

Whether this incident occurred pre- 
cisely as here related may be called in 
question, but it admits of no doubt that 
" grace fettered by precautions — grace 
that hath conditions — is no grace." I 
am unwilling, therefore, to say that belief 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 267 

and confession are the conditions of sal- 
vation, because the word condition in 
popular use implies generally something 
done by one person or party on account 
of which another person or party does 
something promised or stipulated. Now, 
God has not promised or stipulated to 
give eternal life to the sinner on account 
of his belief and confession, but solely on 
account of the finished work of Christ. 
Belief and confession are requisites, or 
they are absolutely necessary, with those 
old enough to be responsible,, in order to 
enjoy eternal life, but they are not con- 
ditions, for "grace fettered by precau- 
tions — grace that hath conditions — is no 
grace." I wish to make the impression 
upon your mind that the grace of God in 
saving lost men is entirely unfettered — 
that it hath no conditions ; but if belief 
and confession are presented as conditions 
upon which forgiveness is extended, the 
inquiring soul is sure to be turned back 
to the law, or works, or the principle of 



268 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

doing, to obtain peace. Very often liave 
I known anxious sinners to keep them- 
selves in darkness and distress because 
they feared their faith was not of the 
right kind, and not strong enough, as 
they express it, or because they were so- 
licitous to confess Christ in a proper 
form. 

Thus do they unconsciously strive to 
find a Saviour, not in Christ, but in their 
belief and confession ; and owing to the 
deep-seated legalism of the human heart, 
they pervert the very purpose of God in 
ordaining salvation by faith. ^^There- 
fore, it is of faith," He says, "that it 
might be by grace ;"^ and again: "By 
grace are ye saved through faith [not on 
account of faith, but through faith] ; and 
that not of yourselves : it is the gift of 
God : not of works, lest any man should 
boast." ^ But if a man is saved on ac- 
count of his belief and confession, they 
obviously become works as truly as his 

1 Kom. iv. 16. 2 Eph. ii. 8, 9. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 269 

attempted obedience of the law, and 
they will be regarded as works to be 
done when set forth as conditions upon 
which God grants salvation. Hence the 
desire, on the part of those who have 
been taught to look upon them as con- 
ditions, to discover some evidence of 
the genuineness and strength of their 
faith in their good feelings and happy 
frame of mind, and hence the mad 
search of thousands for a true Church to 
furnish a refuge from the frown of in- 
censed justice. Satan, with his practiced 
cunning, succeeds in turning away their 
attention from Christ to themselves ; and 
thus, if he cannot destroy he keeps them 
uncertain in their hopes, feeble in their 
spiritual growth, and " all their lifetime 
subject to bondage,"^ instead of going 
forth the emancipated and rejoicing 
children of lio;ht, and of liberty, and 
of God. 

I cannot consent, then, to speak of be- 

1 Heb. ii. 15. 



270 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

lief and confession as conditions of salva- 
tion, but rather as the means or channel 
through which salvation, devised in grace, 
accomplished in grace, and bestowed in 
grace, is received by the sinner, who is 
dependent on the Holy Spirit for every 
proper exercise of his mind, for every 
right emotion of his heart, and for every 
acceptable word of his mouth, from the 
first to the last stage of his religious ex- 
perience. His ability both to believe and 
to confess Christ sincerely and truly is 
due, as we are plainly taught in the Scrip- 
tures, to the sovereign grace of God, and 
this ability is a Divine gift, not a human 
AYork, " lest any man should boast.'' It 
is the height of folly, therefore, for my 
reader to be occupied about his faith in 
place of fixing his thoughts upon Christ ; 
for, faith being a gift, he ought to know 
at once that it is imparted in a manner 
worthy of the glorious Giver, since 
" every good gift and every perfect gift 
is from above, and cometh down from the 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 271 

Father of lights, with whom is no varia- 
bleness, neither shadow of turning."^ 
"He that spared not his own Son, but 
delivered him up for us all, how shall he 
not with him also freely give us all 
things?"^ and because He gives us faith 
we should be perfectly satisfied that it is 
amply sufiicient to secure the end for 
which it is conferred. He intends to 
have the wdiole glory of our salvation, to 
the praise of His dear Son, through the 
wonder-working power of His Spirit ; and 
consequently the way of life revealed in 
His gospel is precisely suited to attain 
His object and precisely suited to our 
need as guilty, helpless sinners. Blessed 
be His name ! He proclaims with heavenly 
sweetness and simplicity " that if thou 
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord 
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart 
that God hath raised him from the dead, 
thou shalt be saved. For wdth the heart 
man believeth unto righteousness ; and 

^ James i. 17. 2 K,om. viii. 32. 



272 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

with the mouth confession is made unto 
salvation." 

It is possible that some one may be 
perplexed by the fact that in the first of 
these two verses confession is mentioned 
before belief, and hence it is important 
to observe that in the second verse belief 
is placed before confession ; and evidently, 
if confession is anything more than the 
grossest hypocrisy or the merest mockery, 
it is only the result or expression of the 
belief already exercised. It must be ap- 
parent upon a moment's reflection that 
we cannot honestly and intelligently con- 
fess Jesus to be our Lord until we first 
believe in the heart that God has raised 
Him from the dead. Confession, there- 
fore, is mentioned before belief in the 
former verse, just to mark the character 
of genuine faith, and this having been 
done, the mode of statement is changed 
in the latter verse, and the natural order 
is given. Both are necessary, but they 
are necessary for s, very different reason. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 273 

Belief is necessary before we are saved, 
and confession is necessary after we are 
saved. Confession sustains to belief the 
same kind of relation which works do to 
faith, and as the apostle argues, " What 
doth it profit, my brethren, though a man 
say he hath faith, and have not works ? 
can faith [that is, such faith, his raying 
he hath faith] save him?"^ So what 
does it profit, my brethren, though a man 
my he believes in his heart that God 
hath raised Christ from the dead, and yet 
refuses to confess with the mouth the 
Lord Jesus ? Can his saying he believes 
this save him while he gives no outward 
manifestation of the reality of his belief? 
Confession, then, forms no part of the 
meritorious cause or reason of our salva- 
tion, but it is equally true that real be- 
lief will be sure to result or express itself 
in confession. Lazarus was not made 
alive because he came forth from the 
grave and appeared among men, but he 

1 James ii. 14. 



274 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

came forth and appeared because he was 
made alive. Neither do we confess Christ 
with the mouth that we may have hfe, 
but because through faith we already 
have life. Nay, I will go farther and 
assert that where the belief is intelligent 
and sincere it will manifest itself in con- 
fession as surely as the healthful life of 
a child will manifest itself in constant 
activity and joyous gambols. If a true 
believer were cast on an uninhabited 
island, I think his songs of praise would 
echo along the lonely shore and the 
voice of his thanksgiving would daily 
break the silence of nature. If he were 
dumb, the soul-stirring belief that he " is 
passed from death unto life" and become 
a "joint heir with Christ" would sparkle 
in his eye, and give shape to his gestures, 
and regulate his gait, and lead him by 
the powerful instincts of the "new man" 
to seek the society and fellowship of those 
who like himself are " born again." Tell 
me, if you w^ill, of one who, having been 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 275 

rescued from flame or flood by the heroic 
efforts of a friend, ever after persistently 
refuses to recognize his deliverer, or to take 
his proffered hand in an assembly, but 
do not tell me that a sinner, saved from 
the fires of hell and from the boundless sea 
of God's indignation and wrath through 
the death of Jesus, can deliberately de- 
cline to confess his Lord or to acknow- 
ledge his indebtedness for redeeming 
grace. 

" Brightness of the Father's glory, 

Shall Thy praise unuttered lie? 
Fly, my tongue, such guilty silence ; 

Sing the Lord who came to die. 
Did the angels sing Thy coming ? 

Did the shepherds learn their lays? 
Shame would cover me ungrateful. 

Should my tongue refuse to praise." 

The time has been when those who 
confessed Christ " had trial of cruel mock- 
ings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of 
bonds and imprisonment : they were 
stoned, they were sawn asunder, were 
tempted, were slain with the sword ; they 



276 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

wandered about in sheep-skins and goat- 
skins ; being destitute, afflicted, torment- 
ed (of whom the world was not worthy) ; 
they wandered in deserts and in moun- 
tains, and in dens and caves of the earth." ^ 
When this time again " comes, and the 
faithful witnesses for the truth shall be 
slain, it will be no less the duty — no, I 
will not say duty, but it will be no less 
the exalted privilege — of the saints then 
on the earth to confess with the mouth 
the Lord Jesus, because they believe in 
the heart that God hath raised Him from 
the dead. Animated by the sublime 
hopes of the gospel, and rendered fear- 
less by the fervour of a personal affection 
for Christ, every true believer will be 
ready to exclaim, " Come and hear, all 
ye that fear God, and I will declare what 
he hath done for my soul."^ So it is 
now; for wherever a sincere, heartfelt 
belief exists, it always causes the knee to 
bow at the name of Jesus and the tongue 

^ Heb. xi. 36-38. 2 pg^ i^vi. 16. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 277 

to " confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
the glory of God the Father/^ ^ Levity 
may laugh and scepticism sneer, false 
friends may entreat and foes assail, but 
the soul linked to God in holy commu- 
nion by faith in the Son of His love 
will be lifted above the reach of this 
poor world's temptations and threats, 
and look down upon it in tender pity 
and with undisturbed com|)osure. It is 
enough for such a soul to hear the Mas- 
ter say, " Whosoever, therefore, shall con- 
fess me before men, him will I confess 
also before my Father which is in heaven. 
But whosoever shall deny me before men, 
him will I also deny before my Father 
which is in heaven."^ It is enough to 
read the solemn declaration of the Holy 
Ghost recorded by the pen of the in- 
spired apostle : " Whosoever shall confess 
that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwell- 
eth in him, and he in God."^ "Ye are 
my friends," says the Saviour, "if ye 

1 Phil. ii. 11. 2 jyjj^tt ^ 32^ 33 3 1 j^x^^^ ^^ 15 
24 



278 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

do whatsoever I command you;"^ and 
knowing that He has commanded us to 
confess Him before men, to be baptized 
in His name, and to eat the bread and 
drink the cup at the Lord's Supper 
in remembrance of Him to show His 
death till He come, the believer cannot 
hesitate to wear the badge of disciple- 
ship — not, as I said before, that he may 
be saved, but because he is saved. 

But you will notice that confession is a 
personal thing : " If thou shalt confess 
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus." It is 
not enough that you confess Jesus to be 
Lord, or the Lord of others, but thy 
Lord, thus acknowledging your indi- 
vidual obligation to Him, and His Di- 
vine sovereignty and rightful authority 
over you as redeemed by His blood and 
the object of His love. Confession, then, 
is the necessary result and external evi- 
dence of your personal faith in Christ, 
who came down from heaven to put away 

* John XV. 14. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 279 

sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and is 
now exalted " far above all principality, 
and power, and might, and dominion, 
and every name that is named, not only 
in this world, but also in that which is to 
come."^ Hence it is written, "^o man 
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by 
the Holy Ghost ;"^ for no man can say 
this intelligently, and as the expression 
of his firm conviction, until he believes 
in Jesus as his Divine and almighty Sa- 
viour ; and no man can believe that the 
meek and lowly " carpenter, the Son of 
Mary," was God manifest in the flesh, 
until he is enlightened by the Holy 
Ghost. '' Hereby know ye the Spirit of 
God : Every spirit that confesseth that 
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of 
God : and every spirit that confesseth not 
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is 
not of God."^ 

What is it, then, to " confess with thy 
mouth the Lord Jesus ?" Let us suppose 

1 Eph. i. 21. 2 1 Q^^ ^^i 3 3 I j(jh„ iv 2, 3. 



280 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

that you should say to some friend en- 
tering your room while reading this chap- 
ter, or to any number of persons as- 
sembled on any occasion, "I sincerely 
confess that Jesus of Nazareth who was 
crucified between two thieves was not 
what the world took Him to be, — an im- 
pious impostor or weak fanatic, — ^but that 
He was the Son of God and the Saviour 
of men; and I joyfully acknowledge 
Him to be my Lord, entitled to my 
faith, and worship, and obedience." This 
would surely be confessing Him with the 
mouth, and this is so simple a child can 
understand it. If a true Christian were 
in your presence, or in the presence of 
" governors and kings," or in the presence 
of the whole human race, and a fitting op- 
portunity should occur, he would gladly 
speak of Jesus as Thomas did when he 
said to the risen Saviour, '^ My Lord and 
my God,"^ and he would carefully avoid 
the fearful sin of Joseph of Arimathea, 

1 John XX. 28. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 281 

who was " a disciple of Jesus, but secretly 
for fear of the .Jews/'^ and wdio, in con- 
sequence of his unmanly fear, did noth- 
ing worthy of a disciple until compelled, 
after the Saviour's death, to confess Him 
in an imperfect manner by begging 
of Pilate the privilege of burying the 
mangled body. There can be no diffi- 
culty, then, in understanding what is 
meant by confessing with the mouth the 
Lord Jesus, since it implies a readiness 
on your part on all suitable occasions to 
own Him in His true character and re- 
lation to yourself as your Lord and Sa- 
viour. 

Neither can there be any trouble in 
understanding w^hat is meant by believ- 
ing in thine heart that God hath raised 
Him from the dead, unless the expression, 
to believe in thine heart, may cause some 
perplexity. About this it is only neces- 
sary to state that the Holy Ghost in the 
Bible takes very little notice of the dis- 

1 John xix. 38. 
24 * 



282 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

tinctions made by modern science between 
the different faculties and departments of 
the soul. We are in the habit of refer- 
ring the understanding to the mind and 
the affections to the heart as their appro- 
priate seat; but the word of God very 
often includes the whole inner man, em- 
bracing the understanding, the will, and 
the affections, under the term heart. But 
even if we observe our human definitions 
and distinctions, it is still true that we 
must believe in the heart that God raised 
Christ from the dead in order to be 
saved. It is no idle speculation with 
which we are now engaged ; it is no cold 
system of philosophy commanding the 
homage of the intellect by its logical 
force and beauty ; but there is a Divine 
person inviting our confidence and a di- 
vinely-attested fact requiring our faith. 

It is an easy thing to crush the cavils 
of such sceptics as Strauss and Kenan, and 
to bring forward an array of arguments to 
prove the resurrection of our Lord that 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 283 

will force the assent of the mmcl ; and 
yet, if the heart remains unaffected, not 
a step will be taken to secure the salva- 
tion of the soul. There are multitudes, 
doubtless, among the worldly and ungod- 
ly, who profess to believe that Christ rose 
from the dead, or at least they can claim 
that they do not dispute it. But there is 
a. vast difference between not disputing a 
truth and believing a truth. They may 
not dispute it because they never had suf- 
ficient interest to investigate the question ; 
or they may make a careless, unthinking 
avowal of their faith in this important 
teaching of God's word, not upon His 
testimony, but because it seems to be gen- 
erally acce23ted by the better class of per- 
sons among whom they live ; or they may 
be convinced it is true without the slight- 
est personal concern in its momentous 
consequences. Absorbed in the business 
and the pleasures of the world, they re- 
ceive it as they receive any other well- 
established historical statement, and it 



284 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

produces no more marked effect upon 
them. It is to guard us against the fatal 
mistake of supposing that such a faith as 
this can be of any real yalue we find it 
written " that if thou shalt confess with 
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt be- 
lieve in thine heart that God hath raised 
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." 
Let a few simple illustrations exhibit 
the difterence between believing with the 
mind and believing with the heart; or 
rather let them show w^hat is meant by 
believing both with the mind and heart. 
All belief in the first instance is neces- 
sarily an act of the mind, but there are 
some things we believe with the mind 
alone, and there are other things we be- 
lieve with the heart also. We may be- 
lieve that Alexander invaded Asia ; that 
Hannibal crossed the Alps ; that Julius 
Caesar was assassinated in Rome; that 
John Milton wrote Paradise Lost ; that 
the sun is ninety-five millions of miles 
distant from the earth ; that light travels 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 285 

with the velocity of more than one hun- 
dred and ninety thousand miles in a 
second ; but we do not believe these facts 
with the heart. If a friend should in- 
form you that he had received a letter 
from England announcing the disposition 
by will of an immense estate witliout 
giving the name of the heir, you would 
probably believe him, but you would 
believe him with the mind only, because 
the news could be of no personal interest 
to you. But if he should proceed with 
his information and declare that you 
yourself are the heir to whom this estate 
immediately descends, you would then 
believe with the heart, provided wealth 
seems to you, as it does to many, a 
most desirable object. You might doubt 
whether such good news could be true ; 
but if there was no room to question the 
credibility of the statement, you would 
believe it with more than your mind, 
because your heart would be at once sum- 
moned to rejoice. A criminal under 



286 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

sentence of death might believe the testi- 
mony of his jailer that a certain man had 
been elected governor during the period 
of his imprisonment, but he would be- 
lieve it only with the mind. If, how- 
ever, the jailer should go on to tell him 
that this newly-elected governor had ex- 
tended to him an unconditional pardon, 
and that he was at liberty to leave his 
dungeon, he would believe the second 
statement both with the mind and the 
heart. When absent from your home a 
correspondent might relate many ordinary 
occurrences that had transpired after your 
departure, and you would doubtless be- 
lieve the statements, but only with the 
mind. If, however, a letter or telegraphic 
despatch should at length be received an- 
nouncing the sudden death of your child, 
or the one who was dearest to you on 
earth, you would know what is meant by 
believing with the heart as well as with 
the mind. 




CHAPTER XIV. 

BELIEF AND CONFESSION, 

OW, when you say that you believe 
God raised Christ from the dead, 
the question is not whether you 
^ believe it as you believe that Oli- 
ver Cromwell was once Lord Protector of 
England or that George Washington was 
the first President of the United States, 
but are you glad that God raised Him 
from the dead ? Do you see in His res- 
urrection the crowning proof and over- 
whelming demonstration of the fact that 
He is indeed the Saviour of lost men, and 
your Saviour ? Do you see in it in con- 
nection with his death the only way of 
escape from the dreadful curse of the 
violated law of God, and the only ground 
on which you can build your hope of 

287 



288 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

immortal glory ? Do you see in it the 
satisfactory evidence that your sins were 
left behind in the grave where they con- 
signed Him, and the certain pledge of 
your own joyful resurrection when He 
shall come a second time apart from sin 
unto salvation ? It is written, " Who was 
delivered for our offences, and was raised 
again for our justification/'-^ and it is 
vain to speak of believing such a truth 
as this unless it finds a lodgment in your 
heart and becomes the mainspring of your 
actions. It is too important and bears too 
directly upon your personal salvation to 
be dismissed from your mind with the 
hasty admission that you do not call it in 
question. If you were dangerously ill, 
and really believed there was but one 
remedy that could stay the ravages of 
your malady, you would not be content 
with an indifferent announcement of your 
faith in its restorative power, but you 
would gladly and thankfully receive it. 

^ Bom. iv. 25. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 289 

If you were on trial for your life^ you 
would not listen with quiet unconcern to 
the verdict of the jury that swept the 
dreadful gallows from your view, but your 
heart would give a great throb of joy on 
hearing words which could give you back 
freedom, and home, and friends. The 
belief of religious truth, also, is sure to be 
attended by the exercise of the affections ; 
and hence Christian faith is the heart- 
felt reception of what God says in His 
word concerning the person, the death, 
and the resurrection of Christ. 

This will plainly appear as we proceed 
to inquire out of the Sacred Scriptures 
precisely what is to be believed in order to 
salvation. I beg your careful, undivided 
attention to what follows, because belief 
is the turning-point in the destiny of your 
soul. I shall quote passages with which 
you are probably familiar, but neverthe- 
less I ask you to read them, and to read 
them again and again, until their full 
meaning is received " in demonstration 



290 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

of the Spirit and of power." ^ It will 
give you some idea of the importance of 
the truth we are now to consider when 
you are informed that the words believe 
and faith occur about five hundred times 
in the New Testament. Gur Lord's first 
recorded conversation with an inquiring 
sinner was about the necessity of belief; 
all His discourses and miracles were di- 
rected to the point of inducing men to 
believe in Him ; and after His resur- 
rection, we hear Him saying to His dis- 
ciples, ''Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature. He 
that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved ; but he that believeth not [whether 
he is or is not baptized] shall be damn- 
ed."^ Accordingly, the apostles went 
forth, and everywhere, and among all 
classes of men, Jew and Gentile, rich and 
poor, educated and illiterate, moral and 
immoral, in answer to the question, 
" What must I do to be saved ?" their 

I 1 Cor. ii. 4. 2 Mark xvi. 15, 16. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 291 

rej^ly was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved." ^ 

But to illustrate the frequency and 
prominence with wdiich belief in Christ 
is taught, let us glance at the testimony 
of a single gospel on this subject. " There 
was a man sent from God, whose name 
was John. The same came for a witness, 
to bear witness of the Light, that all men 
through him might believe." ^ " As many 
as received him, to them gave he power 
to become the sons of God, even to them 
that believe on his name."^ " This be- 
ginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of 
Galilee, and manifested forth his glory ; 
and his disciples believed on him."'* 
" Now when he was in Jerusalem at the 
passover, in the feast day, many believed 
in his name, when they saw the miracles 
which he did." ^ " As Moses lifted up the 
serpent in the wilderness, even so must 
the Son of man be lifted up : that who- 

1 Acts xvi. 31. 2 j^j^n i. 6, 7. ^ j^hn i. 12. 

* John ii. 11. 5 John ii. 23. 



292 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

soever believeth in him should not perish, 
but have eternal life. For God so loved 
the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting 
life. . . . He that believeth on him is 
not condemned : but he that believeth 
not is condemned already ; because he 
hath not believed in the name of the only 
begotten Son of God."^ "He that be- 
lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life ; 
and he that believeth not the Son shall 
not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth 
on him."^ ''And many of the Samari- 
tans of that city believed on him for the 
saying of the woman, which testified. He 
told me all that ever I did. . . . And 
many more believed because of his own 
word ; and said unto the woman, Now we 
believe, not because of thy saying : for 
we have heard him ourselves, and know 
that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour 
of the world." ^ " And the man believed 

1 John iii. 14, 16, 18. ^ Jolin iii. 36. ^ Jolm iv. 39, 41, 42. 



BELIEF AND COXFESSION. 293 

the word that Jesus had spoken unto 
him, . . . and himself believed, and his 
whole house." ^ "Verily, verily, I say 
unto you. He that heareth my word, and 
believeth on him that sent me, hath ever- 
lasting life, and shall not come into con- 
demnation ; but is passed from death 
unto life."^ "Had ye believed Moses, 
ye would have believed me."^ "This is 
the work of God, that ye believe on him 
whom he hath sent."^ " He that believ- 
eth on me shall never thirst."^ "This 
is the will of him that sent me, that every 
one which seeth the Son and believeth on 
him may have everlasting life : and I will 
raise him up at the last day."^ "He 
that believeth on me, as the scripture hath 
said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of 
living water. But this spake he of the 
Spirit, which they that believe on him 
should receive."^ 

1 John iv. 50, 53. ^ j^j^^ v. 24. ^ John v. 46. 
* .John vi. 29. ^ John vi. 35. ^ John vi. 40. 
^ John vii. 38, 39. 
25* 



294 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

" Then said Jesus to those Jews which 
believed on him, If ye continue in my 
word, then are ye my disciples indeed."^ 
^^Dost thou believe on the Son of God? 
He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, 
that I might believe on him ? And Jesus 
said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, 
and it is he that talketh with thee.- And 
he said. Lord, I believe. And he wor- 
shipped him."^ ^^If I do not the works 
of my Father, believe me not. But if I 
do, though ye believe not me, believe 
the works : that ye may know, and be- 
lieve, that the Father is in me, and I in 
him." ^ " He that believeth in me, though 
he were dead, yet shall he live : and who- 
soever liveth and believeth in me shall 
never die. Believest thou this? She 
saith unto him, Yea, Lord : I believe 
that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, 
which should come into the world." ^ 
" Because of the people which stand by 

1 John viii. 31. ^ j^^j^^ ix. 35-38. 

3 John X. 37, 38. * John xi. 25-27. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 295 

I said it, that they may believe that thou 
hast sent me."^ "Then many of the 
Jews which came to Mary, and had seen 
the things which Jesus did, believed on 
him."^ "While ye have light, believe 
in the light, that ye may be the children 
of light." ^ " I am come a light into the 
world, that whosoever believeth on me 
should not abide in darkness."^ "Now 
I tell you before it come, that, when it is 
come to pass, ye may believe that I am 
he."^ a Ye believe in God, believe also 
in me."^ " Believe me that I am in the 
Father, and the Father in me : or else 
believe me for the very works' sake."^ 
" And when he [the Comforter] is come, 
he will reprove the world of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment : of sin, 
because they believe not on me."^ " The 
Father himself loveth you, because ye 
have loved me, and have believed that I 

1 John xi. 42. 2 j^^^ xi. 45. ^ John xii. 36. 
* John xii. 46. ^ John xiii. 19. ^ John xiv. 1. 
7 John xiv. 11. 8 joi^n ^^j g^ 9 



296 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

came out from God."^ " Neither pray I 
for these alone, but for them also which 
shall believe on me through their word ; 
that they all may be one; as thou, 
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that 
they also may be one in us : that the 
world may believe that thou hast sent 
me.''^ " And he that saw it bare record, 
and his record is true : and he knoweth 
that he saith true, that ye might be- 
lieve."^ "And many other signs truly 
did Jesus in the presence of his disci- 
ples, which are not written in this book ; 
but these are written, that ye might be- 
lieve that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
God ; and that believing ye might have 
life through his name."^ 

These are not all the passages concern- 
ing belief in Christ that might be quoted 
from the Gospel written by John, but 
enough has been said to indicate how 
large a place the doctrine occupies in the 

1 John xvi. 27. ^ j^h^ xvii. 20, 21. 

3 John xix. 35. * John xx. 30, 31. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 297 

word of God. They still farther show 
that the truth to be believed in order to 
salvation is the great truth ex]3ressed by 
Martha when she said, " I believe that 
thou art the Christ, the Son of God, 
which should come into the world;" or, 
as Simon Peter expressed it on a certain 
occasion, " We believe and are sure that 
thou art that Christ, the Son of the liv- 
ing God."^ If you will look with a little 
more care at some of the texts already 
given, and at a few others, you will soon 
be convinced that the heartfelt belief of 
the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the 
Son of God, is salvation to the person so 
believing. At the beginning of the Gos- 
pel by John we read, " He came unto his 
own, and his own [that is, the Jew^s] re- 
ceived him not. But as many as received 
him, to them gave he power to become the 
sons of God, even to them that believe 
on his name : which were born, not of 
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of 

1 John vi. 69. 



298 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the will of man, but of God."^ When 
He manifested Himself to the people of 
Israel, they were offended by His lowly 
appearance. They had expected their 
Messiah to be clothed at His first coming 
with Divine majesty, and to march in 
royal state for their national deliverance ; 
and when Jesus of Nazareth, the reputed 
son of Joseph and the real son of a 
humble virgin, presented His claims to 
their faith and allegiance, they received 
Him not. " But as many as received 
him" — received Him in His true charac- 
ter — to them gave He power to become the 
sons of God, for they were born of God 
by believing on His name, or by believing 
that, notwithstanding His unpretending 
exterior. He w^as indeed Immanuel, Won- 
derful, Counsellor, the mighty God, 
The Everlasting Father, The Prince of 
Peace. 

When He said to Nathanael that He 
had seen him under a fig tree before 

1 John i. 11-13. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 299 

Philip called him, " Nathanael answered 
and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the 
Son of God ; thou art the King of Israel. 
Jesus answered and said unto him, Be- 
cause I said unto thee, I saw thee under 
the fig tree, believest thou?" Believest 
thou what ? Why, manifestly, that Jesus 
was the Son of God, the King of Israel ; 
and so believing, the man was saved ; for 
the Lord said unto him, " Thou shalt see 
greater things than these.'' ^ 

When He spoke so kindly to the fallen 
woman at the well of Samaria, seeking 
in matchless grace and wisdom to draw 
her to Himself, she said at length, per- 
haps with a dim consciousness of the 
truth stealing like the gray dawn into 
her oj)ening mind, " I know that Mes- 
sias Cometh, which is called Christ : when 
he is come, he will tell us all things. 
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto 
thee am he,"^ and obviously it was the 
belief of this statement which saved her 

1 John i. 49, 50. 2 j^j^^ iv. 25, 26. 



300 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

soul. No farther conversation ensued 
between them ; but instantly receiying as 
true His own word that He was the Mes- 
sias, or Christ, she left her waterpot, and 
in the joy of her heart announced to 
every one she met that she had found the 
Saviour. 

Another instance of salvation through 
belief of the same truth occurs in the 
account of the man who was born blind, 
to whom our Lord gave sight. Although 
the person of Christ was unknown to 
him, yet he boldly defended His charac- 
ter against the sneers of the Pharisees, 
and accordingly was cast out of the syna- 
gogue, or excommunicated. " Jesus heard 
that they had cast him out ; and when 
he had found him, he said unto him, 
Dost thou believe on the Son of God ? 
He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, 
that I might believe on him ? And 
Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen 
him, and it is he that talketh with thee. 
And he said. Lord, I believe. And he 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 301 

worshipped him."^ It is perfectly obvi- 
ous that the truth here believed in order 
to salvation was nothing more than this, 
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of 
God, and therefore the proper object of 
worship. 

In like manner, we hear the confession 
of the eunuch who said to Philip, " I be- 
lieve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 
And he commanded the chariot to stand 
still : and they went down both into the 
water, both Philip and the eunuch ; and 
he baptized him."^ The cordial belief 
of this truth was the way, simple as it is, 
by which the troubled sinner immedi- 
ately entered into rest, and joy, and life 
everlasting. The same noble confession 
was heard from Peter vfhen our Lord 
^^ asked his disciples, saying. Whom do 
men say that I, the Son of man, am? 
And they said. Some say that thou art 
John the Baptist ; some, Elias ; and 
others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 

1 John ix. 35-38. ^ ^^.^s viii. 37, 38. 

26 



302 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

He saith unto them, But whom say ye 
that I am ? And Simon Peter answered 
and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God. And Jesus answered 
and said unto him, Blessed art thou, 
Simon Bar-jona : for flesh and blood hath 
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father 
which is in heaven."^ How certain it 
is from this that if any man sincerely 
believes Jesus of Nazareth to be the 
Christ, the Son of the living God, the 
truth is revealed to him by the Father, 
and is the channel or means through 
which the blessing of salvation is be- 
stowed! Hence, the Saviour says, ^^ He 
that believeth on me hath everlasting 
life;"^ and "if ye believe not that I am 
he, ye shall die in your sins.''^ "These 
are written," says John, " that ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
of God ; and that believing ye might 
have life through his name."^ Believing 

1 Matt. xvi. 13-17. ^ j^i^i^ ^^ 47^ 

2 John viii. 24. * John xx. 31. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 303 

what? Evidently, that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God ; and so believ- 
ing, the assurance is we have life through 
His name. "Whosoever believeth that 
Jesus is the Christ is born of God."^ 
" Who is he that overcometh the world, 
but he that believeth that Jesus is the 
Son of God?"^ Nothing more need be 
said to ]3^ove that every one who truly 
and in the heart believes Jesus to be the 
Son of God is saved. 

But you at once perceive that no one 
can really believe this without also be- 
lieving that He died in the manner and 
for the objects set forth in the Sacred 
Scriptures. It would be absurd and self- 
contradictory to believe upon the testi- 
mony of these Scriptures that He is the 
Son of God, and at the same time to deny 
in the face of the same testimony that He 
died upon the cross, and died as "the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the 
sin of the world." ^ "The Son of man 

^ 1 Jolin V. 1. 2 1 jo]jn V. 5. ^ John i. 29. 



304 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, and to give his life a ransom 
for many.'^^ "This is my blood of the 
new testament, which is shed for many 
for the remission of sins."^ " God send- 
ing his own Son in the likeness of sinful 
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the 
flesh." ^ "He hath made him to be sin 
for us, who knew no sin ; that we might 
be made the righteousness of God in 
him."^ " Who gave himself for our sins, 
that he might deliver us from this pres- 
ent evil world, according to the will of 
God and our Father."^ " Christ died for 
our sins according to the scriptures."^ 
"When he had by himself purged our 
sins, sat down on the right hand of the 
Majesty on high."^ "Once in the end 
of the world hath he apjDeared to put 
away sin by the sacrifice of himself."^ 
" Who his own self bare our sins in his 

1 Matt. XX. 28. "^ Matt. xxvi. 28. ^ Eom. viii. 3. 
* 2 Cor. V. 21. ^ Gal. i. 4. « 1 Cor. xv. 3. 

7 Heb. i. 3. « Heb. ix. 26. 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 305 

own body on the tree."^ "The blood of 
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from 
all sin."^ "He is the propitiation for 
our sins."^ " Ye know that he was mani- 
fested to take away our sins."^ "Unto 
him that loved us, and w^ashed us from 
our sins in his own blood, and hath made 
us kings and priests unto God and his 
Father; to him be glory and dominion 
for ever and ever. Amen."^ 

The Bible is full of such texts, for its 
great design from the third chapter of 
Genesis onward to the close is to pro- 
claim our deliverance from sin and its 
dreadful consequences through the death 
of God's only begotten and well-beloved 
Son. It is impossible, therefore, to be- 
lieve in the heart that He is the Son of 
God without also believing that He died, 
not by accident, not by the uncontrolled 
vindictiveness of His enemies, not as an 
example, for then His example were 



VI Pet. ii. 24. 


2 1 John i. 7. 


3 1 John ii. 2, 


* 1 John iii. 5. 




5 Rev. i. 5, 6. 


26* 


U 





306 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

thrown away, since none of us are called 
to die upon the cross under the hidings 
of God's face, but that He died as the 
sin-hearer and divinely-appointed sub- 
stitute of His people, w^ho was made 
to be sin for them in that fearful hour 
when from His breaking heart and pallid 
lips ascended the mournful cry of deser- 
tion. The question, then, is just this : 
Do you sincerely believe that He died to 
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself? 
If you do, you are a saved person, and 
saved now ; and if you w^ere to ask me 
how I know, I would reply, I know it 
upon precisely the same testimony that 
tells me Jesus is the Son of God. He 
who declares by the Holy Ghost in His 
blessed word that when the fulness of the 
time was come He " sent forth his Son, 
made of a woman, made under the law, 
to redeem them that were under the law" 
by being made a curse for them, still 
further declares that the belief of this 
truth is salvation ; and we have as much 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 307 

authority for believing one statement as 
the other. 

And now what renders assurance doub- 
ly sure is the fact that Jesus, who lived 
and was crucified, rose again, and was 
thus " declared to be the Son of God 
with power, according to the spirit of ho- 
liness, by the resurrection from the dead."^ 
If God Himself had not connected the 
forgiveness of your sins and eternal life 
with your belief of what He says in the 
Bible concerning the person, the death, 
and the resurrection of His Son, you 
could not be blamed for remaining in 
anxiety and fear as to your salvation. 
But after He has so distinctly stated that 
if you believe in your heart that He raised 
the Lord Jesus from the dead, you shall be 
— not may be, nor hope to be, no, shall be 
— saved, a moment's doubt of your pardon 
and acceptance is a grievous dishonour to 
Him who is too holy to tell a lie, too good 
to trifle with your eternal interests. When 

1 Kom. i. 4. 



308 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

tlie multitude listened to Peter and the 
other apostles preaching on the day of 
Pentecost, they heard of the person, the 
death, and the resurrection of Christ, 
but they did not at once hear that the 
belief of the testimony which had been 
delivered in their presence was the simple 
and yet sure way of receiving life. Hence 
for a little while they were greatly per- 
plexed and troubled, being convicted of 
sin, but seeing no way of escape from 
ruin, until they were told of the remis- 
sion of sins in immediate connection with 
the name of Jesus, who had been preached 
to them ; and believing that He had put 
away sin, they that gladly received the 
word were baptized, and rejoiced. 

Saul of Tarsus, also, on his way to Da- 
mascus, had overwhelming proof of the 
resurrection of Christ, and yet he con- 
tinued in darkness and distress until in- 
formed that the Lord had risen, not to 
condemn the world, but that the world 
through Him might be saved, and believ- 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 309 

ing this, " immediately there fell from his 
eyes as it had been scales/' and " straight- 
way he preached Christ in the synagogues, 
that he is the Son of God."^ In the 
chapter that follows the narrative of 
Paul's conversion we find Peter preach- 
ing for the first time to the Gentiles, in 
the house of the Roman centurion, Cor- 
nelius. He first set forth the person of 
Jesus Christ, declaring that " he is Lord 
of all," and then His death upon the 
cross, and then His resurrection, add- 
ing : " To him give all the j)rophets wit- 
ness, that through his name w^hosoever 
believeth in him shall receive remission 
of sins."^ Believeth what? Clearly 
what the apostle had just affirmed con- 
cerning Him as the Lord of all who came 
down from heaven to die and to rise 
again for the salvation of men. In the 
next chapter but two we find Paul 
preaching to his own countrymen in An- 
tioch, and again first setting forth Jesus 

' Acts ix. 20, - Acts x. 43. 



310 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

as the Saviour whose shoes John the 
Baptist was not worthy to loose, and then 
declaring His death, and then announ- 
cing His resurrection, and then sum- 
ming all up in the blessed words, " Be it 
known unto you therefore, men and 
brethren, that through this man is preach- 
ed unto you the forgiveness of sins : and 
by him all that believe are justified from 
all things, from which ye could not be 
justified by the law of Moses.'^^ Believe 
what? Evidently the testimony- they 
had just heard about the person, the 
death, and the resurrection of Christ; 
and, receiving this testimony as true, 
they evidently had the same authority 
for believing that their sins were for- 
given, and that they were justified from 
all things, that they had for believ- 
ing the statements to which they had 
listened. 

This is still the plain and only way by 
which sinners are saved ; for '' to him 

1 Acts xiii. 38, 39. 



& 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 311 

that worketli not, but believeth in him 
that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is 
counted for righteousness,"^ and ^there- 
fore it is of faith, that it might be by 
grace ; to the end the promise might be 
sure to all the seed."^ Yes, it is sure, 
and there are no "ifs" nor "ands"nor 
"buts" about it. God does not say to 
him that believeth, ^'if" he feels good; 
to him that believeth ^^and" does some- 
thing else; to him that believeth "but" 
feareth ; no ! he says. To him that be- 
lieveth, his faith is counted for righteous- 
ness. Luther used to say the devil would 
sometimes come to him with the question, 
" Martin, do you feel that you are saved ?" 
" No," the man taught of the Spirit would 
rej)ly, " I do not feel it, but I know it." 
It is said that towards the close of the 
first Naj)oleon's career he was one day re- 
viewing his troops in Paris, when having 
inadvertently dropped the bridle-reins of 
the horse he was riding, the spirited 

^ Kum. iv. 5. '^ Kom. iv. 10. 



312 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

animal gave a bound and came near 
dashing the emperor to the earth. A 
young soldier standing in the lines sprang 
forward, and, seizing the bit, saved the 
chieftain from a fall. Napoleon, glancing 
at him, said, in his quick, cur,t way, 
"Thank you, captain." The soldier, 
knowing his peculiarities, looked up with 
a smile, and inquired, " Of what regi- 
ment, sire ?'' " Of my guards," replied 
the emperor, and gallopped aw^ay. The 
soldier had no epaulettes on his shoulders 
and no sword at his side to prove his 
rank, but instantly laying his musket 
on the ground, with the remiark, " Let 
whoever will, carry it ; I am done with 
it," he proceeded to join a group of staff- 
officers standing at a little distance. One 
of them, seeing him approach, said, 
" What is this insolent fellow doing 
here ?" " This insolent fellow," re- 
s]3onded the soldier, looking the other 
steadily in the eye — " this insolent fellow 
is a Cciptain of the guards." "Why, 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 313 

man/' replied the officer, "you are de- 
ranged ; why do you speak thus ?" " He 
said it/' shouted the soldier, pointing to 
the emperor, far down the lines. " I beg 
your pardon, captain," responded the 
officer ; " I was not aware of your pro- 
motion." 

And now, my friend, " if thou shalt 
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus 
and shalt believe in thine heart that God 
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt 
be saved ; " and if the world, the flesh, 
or the devil asks you how you know you 
are saved, reply by looking up to Jesus, 
at the right hand of the Father, and 
boldly exclaim, " He said it." Surely he 
has said it in the " word of God, which 
liveth and abideth for ever,"^ and who 
shall gainsay it ? You are authorized to 
believe this very moment that He bare 
your sins in His own body on the tree ; 
and if he bare them in His own body, they 
cannot be found on you. You are com- 

1 1 Pet. i. 23. 
27 



314 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

manded to believe that He put away sin, 
root and branch, by the sacrifice of Him- 
self; and if He put it away, it can no 
longer be upon your conscience. You are 
entreated to accept as true the testimony 
of God that He died for our sins accord- 
ing to the Scriptures — not according to 
our feelings, or deseryings, but according 
to the Scriptures — and he who believes 
this may know upon that same testimony 
that he is saved. Oh that you may be- 
lieve God as Abraham did when "he 
staggered not at the promise of God 
through unbelief; but was strong in faith, 
giving glory to God ; [for it glorifies and 
pleases God to have us believe him ;] and 
being fully persuaded, that what he had 
promised, he was able also to perform. 
And therefore it was imputed to him for 
righteousness. Now it was not written 
for his sake alone, that it was imputed to 
liim ; but for us also, to whom it shall be 
imputed, if we believe in him that raised 
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who 



BELIEF AND CONFESSION. 315 

was delivered for our offences, and was 
raised again for our justification. There- 
fore being justified by faith, [not by feel- 
ings or works] we have [not hope to have, 
nor try to have] peace with God, through 
our Lord Jesus Christ : by whom also we 
have access by faith into this grace where- 
in ^\e stand, and rejoice in hope of the 
glory of God.''^ 

" Faith is a very simple tiling, 
Though little understood ; 
It frees the soul from death's dread sting 
By resting in the blood. 

" Faith is not what we feel or see, 
It is a simple t7mst 
In what the God of love has said 
Of Jesus as ^ the Just/ 

"^Vhat Jesus is, and that alone, 

Is faith's delightful plea ; 

It never deals with sinful self, 

Nor righteous self in me. 

"It tells me I am counted ^ dead^ 
By God, in his own word ; 
It tells me I am ^ born again ' 
In Christ, my risen Lord. 

^ Kom. iv. 20-25 ; v. 1, 2. 



316 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

" If He is free, then I am free 
From all unrighteousness ; 
If He is just, then I am just, 
He is my righteousness." 



CHAPTEK XV. 

THE BELIEVER'S SAFETY. 

' For the scripture saith, Whosoever belie veth on him shall 
not be asharoed."— Romans x. 11. 

YOUNG minister was in the habit 
of visiting an aged Scotch woman 
^%yi in his congregation who was fa- 
^"^ miharly called ''Old Nanny." She 
was bed-ridden and rapidly approaching 
the end of her "long and weary pil- 
grimage/' but she rested with undisturbed 
composure and full assurance of faith 
upon the finished work of Christ. One 
day he said to her, " Now, Nanny, what 
if, after all your confidence in the Sa- 
viour, and your watching and waiting, 
God should suffer your soul to be lost ?" 
Raising herself on her elbow, and turn- 
ing to him with a look of grief and pain, 

27* 317 



318 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

she laid her hand on the ojDen Bible be- 
fore her, and quietly replied, ''Ah, dearie 
nie, is that a' the length you hae got yet, 
man? God," she continued earnestly, 
''would hae the greatest loss. Poor 
Nannie would but lose her soul, and that 
would be a great loss indeed, but God 
would lose His honour and His character. 
Haven't I hung my soul upon His ' ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises'? 
and if He brak' His word. He would 
make Himself a liar, and a' the uni- 

VEESE WOULD RUSH INTO CONFUSION." 

This anecdote reveals the true ground 
of the believer's safety. It is as high as 
the honour of God ; it is as trustworthy 
as His character; it is as immutable as 
His promises ; it is as broad as the in- 
finite merits of His Son's atoning blood. 
There has long been a sharp controversy 
between theological writers concerning 
the doctrine of "the perseverance of the 
saints," as it is called, but, like most con- 
troversies among true Christians, it is 



THE believer's SAFETY. 319 

owing largely to a misapprehension or 
misap23lication of the terms employed in 
the dispute. The question, properly pre- 
sented, is not about the perseverance of 
the saints, but the perseverance of the 
Lord. If the saints were left to them- 
selves, it is not only probable, but certain, 
that they would not persevere, but if the 
Lord perseveres in His purpose of grace, 
it is not only probable, but certain, that 
they will be saved. Inasmuch, then, as 
the phrase, '' perseverance of the saints," 
is not found in the Bible, and as it may 
possibly turn our attention from the Sa- 
viour to ourselves, wdiich is always fraught 
with evil, I prefer to think of the perse- 
verance of the Lord in speaking of the 
believer's safety. 

" The Scripture saith," or, in other 
words, God saith in the Scripture, " who- 
soever believeth on him [that is, on 
Christ] shall not be ashamed." Mark 
the vast extent of this blessed declara- 
tion, " whosoever believeth." The word 



320 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

"whosoever" goes like the light over the 
entire surface of our globe, and includes 
within the ample and urgent invitations 
of the gospel every member of the hu- 
man race. There are many w^ho fear 
that they do not belong to the elect, or 
that they are not embraced in the plan 
of redemption, and hence they long to 
have some direct and personal evidence 
of the willingness of God to forgive and 
save the7i[i^ but surely there is here full 
warrant for the faith of every sinner. 
The most illiterate, the most degraded, 
and the most friendless, as well as the in- 
telligent, the virtuous, and the honoured, 
among the sons of men, are invited, and 
exhorted, and commanded, to believe on 
Jesus Christ, for "whosoever believeth 
shall not be ashamed." This Divine 
proclamation is not only a good way, but 
unquestionably the best way that could 
be devised, to encourage the doubting and 
hesitating sinner to trust in the promises 
of God, for if there had been a better 



THE BELIEVEE's SAFETY. 321 

way, certainly it would have been adopted. 
Suj)pose there were a book somewhere in 
the world containing the names of all the 
saved in the past, present, and future. If 
you were to find your name on one of its 
countless pages, you would not be satis- 
fied : because there may have been, or may 
be now, or may be hereafter, another per- 
son of the same name. Suppose the 
voice of God should sjDcak down from 
heaven, as it did at the baptism and 
transfiguration of His well-beloved Son, 
audibly and articulately announcing you 
to be one of His redeemed children ; still 
you would not be satisfied, because you 
might fear your ears had deceived you, 
or that the announcement was intended 
for a different person. But when the 
voice of God saith in the Scripture, 
"whosoever believeth," you know that 
you are brought within the circle of 
mercy and designated in a surer manner 
than by name. 

If a wealthy and benevolent gentle- 

V 



322 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

man were to aclyertise that lohosoever ap- 
plied at his residence before a certain day 
should receive a valid title to a valuable 
piece of property, you would not refuse 
to apply because he had not mentioned 
your name in the advertisement. If you 
were travelling on a railroad with a num- 
ber of passengers, and the conductor 
should announce that luhosoever is going 
to the place you are anxious to reach 
must leave the train at the next station, 
you would not retain your seat and be 
carried away from your destination be- 
cause he did not call out your name. If 
you were in a city besieged by a powerful 
army, and the commanding officers of the 
opposing forces should order a suspension 
of hostilities that lohosoever among the in- 
habitants desired to remove to a place of 
safety might withdraw before the assault 
was made, you would not complain be- 
cause your name did not occur in the 
order. In such cases a class is sj)ecified, 
and if you belong to the class you need 



THE believer's SAFETY. 323 

no other warrant to act. In like manner, 
you have abundant authority for acting 
without a moment's delay upon the broad 
statements and general invitations of the 
gospel. Jesus says, " God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life.''^ 
" And the Spirit and the bride say. Come. 
And let him that heareth say. Come. 
And let him that -is athirst come. And 
w^hosoever will, let him take the w^ater of 
life freely."^ Surely, you cannot ask or 
desire anything more earnest, more tender, 
more definite than this ; and if it fails to 
convince you that you are authorized to 
believe on Christ, there is no conceivable 
mode by which you can be assured of 
God's willingness to save you. 

But to make this point still clearer you 
will observe it is said, " Whosoever believ- 
eth in him." There is a difference be- 
tween believing a person and believing 

^ John iii. 16. 2 Rev. xxii. 17. 



324 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

in or on a person. The former implies 
that we accept his statements as true with- 
out going farther, but the latter implies 
that w^e trust in or rely on him. If a 
man of undoubted veracity were to in- 
form us of something which he had wit- 
nessed, but of which we ourselves had no 
personal knowledge, we would believe 
him ; but if he should promise to confer 
upon us a favour which we greatly de- 
sired to receive, we would confide in him 
or depend on him to fulfil his promise. 
Now, the salvation held out to us in the 
gospel does not consist merely in the be- 
lief of certain doctrines, but belief in a 
person. Peter and the other apostles, in 
defending themselves before the Jewish 
council, said, " The God of our fathers 
raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged 
on a tree. Him hath God exalted with 
his right hand to be a Prince and a Sa- 
viour, for to give repentance to Israel, 
and forgiveness of sins."^ Pie showed 

1 Acts V. 30, 31. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 325 

Himself alive to His disciples, " after liis 
passion, by many infallible proofs, being 
seen of them forty days, and speaking of 
the things pertaining to the kingdom of 
God;"^ and when He had "led them 
out as far as to Bethany,"^ and had given 
His final commands, " while they beheld, 
he was taken up ; and a cloud received 
him out of their sight." ^ It is not, 
therefore, a dead but a living Christ 
which s]3eaks to us in His word, and in 
whom we are urged to trust. From His 
exalted seat at the rio:ht hand of the 
Father He sees you now while reading 
these lines, and if it were best. He would 
instantly descend from heaven and stand 
before you in personal, visible form. So 
full of sympathy is His heart of love, and 
so deep His concern for your salvation, 
that the sight of your burdened soul 
would arrest His attention, I think, even 
if engaged in making a new world, and 
bring Him once more to the cross, could 

1 Acts i. 3. 2 Lnke xxiv. 50. ^ Acts i. 9. 

28 



326 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

His death a second time avail more fully 
to deliver you from the condemnation 
and curse of God's violated law. 

Suppose He should appear at this mo- 
ment in your presence and with His own 
voice promise to give you the crown of 
eternal life before asking you to do any- 
thing or to feel anything. Would you 
trust in Him ? Would you depend on 
Him to make good His promise ? If you 
would, remember He speaks to you as 
truly and directly in His word as He 
could possibly do were He to reveal 
Himself bodily, so that your eyes could 
see Him and your ears could hear Him. 
It is the peculiarity of His w^ord that, 
unlike any other word, it " liveth and 
abideth for ever,"^ so that it is as fresh, 
and sweet, and powerful to-day as if it 
had just fallen from His lips. But there 
is this immense advantage in the written 
word over the spoken — that having once 
received assurance of salvation in the 

1 1 Pet. i. 23. 



THE BELIEVER^S SAFETY. 327 

former you can always receive it there, 
for " the word of the Lord endureth for 
ever. And this is the word w^hich by 
the gospel is preached unto you."^ 

It is an unspeakable relief to the trou- 
bled sinner to find that this word which 
by the gospel is preached unto you does 
not say, AVhosoever believeth and is 
good; Whosoever believeth and feeleth 
hapj)y ; Whosoever believeth and prayeth 
well ; Whosoever believeth and loveth 
God fervently ; T\Tiosoever believeth and 
findeth the true Church ; but, " Whoso- 
ever believeth on him," or, in other 
words, "Whosoever trusteth in Christ, 
shall not be ashamed." Of course I am 
far from saying that the sincere believer 
will not follow holiness ; or that he will 
not be happy ; or that he will not hold 
communion with God ; or that he will 
not love the Saviour and confess Him be- 
fore men ; but the sinner is not to be oc- 
cupied with these first, for he needs first 

1 1 Pet. i. 25. 



328 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

to be saved, and he is saved by believing, 
simply and only believing, in Jesus. Nor 
does the word intimate whether our belief 
must be strong or weak. It is not. Who- 
soever believeth strongly, but, Whosoever 
believeth. It is Jesus Christ who saves 
us, and not our belief ; and hence, " if ye 
have faith as a grain of mustard seed,"^ or 
if, like the suffering woman " which had 
spent all her living upon physicians,"^ 
your faith is greatly wanting in know- 
ledge, still you may come, creeping, if 
you cannot walk, to that compassionate 
and gentle Saviour of whom it is written, 
" A bruised reed shall he not break, and 
smoking flax shall he not quench."^ 

"Whosoever believeth on him shall 
not be ashamed." He shall not be 
ashamed to confess Him with the mouth, 
for the "righteous are bold as a lion,"^ 
and the saints of old " through faith sub- 
dued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, 

1 Matt. xvii. 20. ^ l^^^ yjij^ 43^ 

^ Matt. xii. 20. * Prov. xxviii. 1. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 329 

obtained promises, stopped the mouth of 
lions, quenched the violence of fire, es- 
caped the edge of the sword ; out of weak- 
ness were made strong, waxed valiant in 
fight, turned to flight the armies of the 
aliens."^ Nor shall he be ashamed "when 
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming 
fire, taking vengeance on them that know 
not God, and that obey not the Gospel of 
our Lord Jesus Christ."^ The solemn 
language of our Lord does not apply 
to him : " Whosoever therefore shall be 
ashamed of me and my words, in this 
adulterous and sinful generation, of him 
also shall the Son of man be ashamed, 
when he cometh in the glory of his 
Father with the holy angels/'^ On the 
other hand, he can joyfully exclaim with 
the apostle, " I am not ashamed of the 
Gospel of Christ : for it is the power of 
God [not the power of man, but the power 
of God] unto salvation to every one that 

1 Heb. xi. 33, 34. ^ 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. ^ jyjark viii. 38. 

28'^ 



330 THE WAY MADE PLAIX. 

believetli."^ And again with the apostle 
he can sav, " God forbid that I should 
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whom the world is crucified 
unto me, and I unto the world." ^ The 
secret of this bold confession of the 
crucified One, and of this strange glori- 
fying in the cross, is given by the same 
apostle when he says, "We having the 
same spirit of faith, according as it is 
written, I believed, and therefore have I 
spoken ; we also believe, and therefore 
speak ; knowing that he which raised up 
the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by 
Jesus, and shall present us with you."'^ 
The believer, then, knows upon the sure 
testimony of God's word that he shall 
not be ashamed at the coming of the 
Lord hereafter, and consequently he can- 
not be ashamed to own the Lord as his 
Saviour here. 

The foundation of his safety is laid on 
the finished work of Christ, and is guarded 

J Kom. i. 16. 2 Q.^,1^ ^i 14 3 2 Cor. iv. 13, 14. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 331 

by the infinite power, the eternal purpose, 
and the immutable promise of Jehovah. 
Nothing, therefore, in this world or in 
the world to come can blight his hopes 
or defeat his aspirations. " If God be 
for us, w^ho can be against us ? He that 
spared not his own Son, but delivered 
him up for us all, how shall he not w^th 
him also freely give us all things ? Who 
shall lay anything to the charge of God's 
elect? It is God that justifieth. Who 
is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that 
died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who 
is even at the right hand of God, who 
also maketh intercession for us."^ In 
this most interesting and comforting pas- 
sage the Holy Ghost first gives us to un- 
derstand that God is for us, and hence 
triumphantly asks. Who can be against us? 
He then asserts that God's love for us is 
so great that He spared not His own Son, 
though He must endure the sorrow and 
shame, the deep humiliation and terrible 

1 Rom. viii. 31-34. 



332 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

agonies, of Gethsemane and Calvary, and 
makes this the proof of our Father's 
^Yillingness to bestow upon us freely all 
things necessary to secure the end of so 
much suffering, since the greater gift in- 
cludes the less. He then challenges the 
universe to bring the slightest charge 
against those whom God Himself has jus- 
tified. He then mentions the death of 
Christ, which was in the room and place 
of our death, because of our offences; 
and, as if this were not enough. He tells 
us of His resurrection, which is the un- 
answerable demonstration of our complete 
justification; and, as if this were not 
enough, he points to Him at the right 
hand of God, Head over all things to the 
Church, and swaying the sce23tre of su- 
preme sovereignty ; and, as if this were 
not enough. He bids us listen to the ever 
prevalent intercession of One who could 
say even upon the earth, although de- 
spised and rejected of men, " Father, I 
thank thee that thou hast heard me ; and 



THE believer's SAFETY. 333 

I knew that thou hearest me always."^ 
" Father, I will that they also, whom thou 
hast given me, be with me where I am."^ 
It is not surprising that a chapter con- 
taining such a passage should begin by 
declaring that there is no condemnation 
against the believer, and end by declaring 
that there is no separation from the Sa- 
viour when once we truly believe on His 
name. " The Spirit searcheth all things, 
yea, the deep things of God."^ " By one 
Spirit are we all baptized into one body,"^ 
no matter how widely removed from each 
other by time or place. " Whither shall 
I go from thy Spirit ?"^ asks the Psalmist. 
It is certain, then, that the Spirit is every- 
where present, and is jDcrfectly familiar 
with all that occurs in heaven above, and 
in the earth beneath, and in the dark- 
ness of the under-world, and yet having 
passed across the boundless empire which 
the word of the Almighty has created, 

1 John xi. 41, 42. '' John xvii. 24. ^ 1 Cor. ii. 10. 
♦ 1 Cor. xii. 13. ^ Ps. cxxxix. 7. 



334 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

and over the hell which sin has dug, He 
distinctly announces " that neither death, 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
nor powers, nor things present, nor things 
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
other creature, shall be able to separate 
us from the love of God, which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord."^ 

There are thousands of Christians Y\^ho, 
on the pretence of humility, make a merit 
of doubting their salvation, but in the 
light of such statements as you have just 
read the faintest shadow of doubt is seen 
to be a grievous dishonour to God. If 
doubts are becoming to those who are be- 
lievers, God is a liar, but if God speaks 
the truth, how should we look upon our 
doubts, and how should we regard our- 
selves for calling in question His clear 
and oft-repeated testimony? But, you 
may reply, your difficulty does not lie in 
this direction. You firmly believe, you 
say, that God speaks the truth, but you 

1 Rom. viii. 38, 39. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 335 

doubt your acceptance, you doubt wheth- 
er you are saved, because your faith is so 
weak, and your love is so cold, and your 
feelings are so variable, and there is so 
much evil in you, and you make so little 
progress, or none at all that you can per- 
ceive, in holiness. Now, it is not for man 
to decide whether you are or are not a 
believer in Christ, but I do confidently 
affirm that these things have nothing 
whatever to do with the ground upon 
which God makes peace with the sinner, 
though they may have mucli to do with 
our enjoyment of peace. 

When Jehovah in infinite grace re- 
deemed Israel from Egyptian bondage, 
what was the ground of their peace and 
the precise cause of their deliverance? 
It was not their goodness in any respect ; 
for they were certainly no better by na- 
ture nor by practice, for aught we are told, 
than the Egyptians, and there was noth- 
ing to recommend them to the Divine 
mercy but their utter wretchedness. " The 



336 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

children of Israel sighed by reason of the 
bondage, and they cried, and their cry 
came up unto God by reason of the bond- 
age. And God heard their groaning, and 
God remembered his covenant with Abra- 
ham, with Isaac, and wdth Jacob." ^ But 
before He could deal w^ith them in mani- 
fested love He must first deal with their 
sins in manifested righteousness. Their 
lives were forfeited by reason of their in- 
iquities, and the judgment must descend : 
but in the tenderness of God's compas- 
sion for His covenant peoi3le it descended 
upon the head of a divinely-appointed 
Substitute. They were commanded to 
slay a lamb, and to take the blood — ''for 
the blood is the life"" — and to strike it 
on the two side-posts and on the upper 
door-post of their houses. "And the 
blood," it is added, " shall be to you for 
a token upon the houses where you are : 
and when I see the blood, I will pass over 
you, and the plague shall not be upon 

1 Ex. ii. 23, 24. '' Deut. xii. 23. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 337 

you to destroy you, when I smite the 
land of Egypt." ^ 

The blood made all the difference that 
existed between the Israelites and the 
Egyptians, for it was a token that the 
sentence of death had already been exe- 
cuted in the behalf of those within the 
blood-sprinkled houses, because it had 
fallen upon their representative and sub- 
stitute. The slightest doubt of safety, 
therefore, on the part of an Israelite shel- 
tered behind those red door-posts, would 
have been the same as saying that Jeho- 
vah is a liar. He had said, " When I see 
the blood, I will pass over you," and this 
ought to have been enough : it was enough 
for all who believed His word. Some of 
them may have complained that their 
faith was so weak, and their love was 
so cold, and their feelings were so va- 
riable, and there was so much evil in 
them, and so little progress in holiness, 
that they could not see the evidences of 

1 Ex. xii. 13. 

29 W 



338 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

their salvation. But this was not the 
question. God did not say, " When you 
see the evidences/' but, " When I see the 
blood, I will pass over you." He did not 
say, When I see your strong faith, your 
ardent love, your happy feelings, your 
victory over the evil of your nature, your 
rapid growth in holiness, I will pass over 
you, but. When I see the blood, I will pass 
over you. It was not the blood and some- 
thing else, but it was the blood by itself, 
the blood which God provided, that 
formed the ground of their safety and 
their redemption. During that frightful 
night of destruction there may have been 
fathers and mothers who, hearing the 
shrieks of the terror-stricken Egyptians, 
caught their first-born to their hearts in 
inexpressible anxiety, but if so, their fear 
was a most ungenerous and unworthy 
suspicion of the God of their salvation, 
for they were as secure from harm as the 
power and purpose and promise of the 
Almighty could make them. 




CHAPTEK XVI. 

THE BELIEVER'S SAFETY. 

3) 

C^^jET us take from the Old Testament 
I,, V Scrij)ture one more illustration of 
the believer's perfect safety on the 
ground that blood has been shed, 
or that life has been given up in the stead 
of his life. On the great day of atonement 
Aaron was directed to select two goats, 
one for the Lord and the other for the 
scapegoat. " And Aaron/' it is said, "shall 
bring the goat upon which the Lokd's 
lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering,"^ 
The victim was not presented as a burnt- 
offering, for that was a type of Christ, 
who "offered himself without spot to 
God,"^ not as a sin -bearer, but " an offer- 
ing and a sacrifice to God for a sweet- 

1 Lev. xvi. 9. ^ jjeb. ix. 14. 

339 



340 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

smelling savour." ^ Nor was he presented 
as a meat-oflfering ; for that was a type 
of Christ in His faultless life on earth, 
fulfilling all His duties to man as man. 
Nor was he presented as a peace-ofiering ; 
for that was a type of our communion 
with God in Christ, so that it can be said, 
" Ye who sometimes were far off are made 
nigh by the blood of Christ."^ But he 
was presented distinctly as a sin-offering, 
to put away iniquity from the sight of 
a holy God. Having been slain, the high 
priest was commanded to bring his blood 
within the veil of the tabernacle where 
Jehovah dwelt, and to sprinkle the blood 
upon the mercy-seat and before the mercy- 
seat seven times, or the com23lete number. 
Then he was to go out unto the altar that 
is before the Lord (see Leviticus xvi. 18), 
and sprinkle the blood upon it seven times. 
Afterwards, it is said, " Aaron shall lay 
both his hands upon the head of the live 
goat, and confess over him all the iniqui- 

1 Eph. V. 2. 2 Epi^ ii 13^ 



THE believer's SAFETY. 341 

ties of the children of Israel, and all their 
transgressions in all their sins, putting 
them uj)on the head of the goat, and shall 
send him away by the hand of a fit man 
into the wilderness : and the goat shall 
bear upon him all their iniquities unto a 
land not inhabited."^ 

The act of laying both the hands upon 
the head of the goat showed that the guilt 
of the people was transferred or imputed 
to their substitute, because, the blood 
being shed, the law of God was ^perfectly 
satisfied, the demands of His justice were 
thoroughly met, and in unsullied right- 
eousness He could now put away their sin. 
" The life of the flesh is in the blood," we 
are told, '' for it is the blood that maketh 
an atonement for the soul."^ Mark that ! 
" It is the blood that maketh an atone- 
ment for the soul ; " or, as the word 
translated atonement here properly means 
" to cover or cover over," it is the blood 
that covereth over the sins of the soul ; 

1 Lev. xvi. 21, 22. 2 ^^^ xvii. 11. 

29- 



342 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

and because covered over with blood so 
that God's pure eyes cannot see them, 
at-one-ment is made, and God and the 
sinner are brought together in peace. 
Hence it is said, ''The goat shall bear 
upon him all their iniquities [not some 
of them merely, but all of them] unto a 
land not inhabited," and there they are 
lost to view for ever. If, then, any of 
the assembled Israelites who watched the 
high priest coming forth from the pres- 
ence of the Lord to sprinkle the altar 
with the blood of the slain goat, and to 
lay both his hands upon the head of the 
live goat, should doubt for a single mo- 
ment the forgiyeness of all their iniqui- 
ties, it would be in effect to say that the 
blessed God had uttered a falsehood. It 
was not a question of fitness or unfitness, 
of feeling or of realization, on their part, 
but it was a simjole question concerning 
the veracity of the Holy One of Israel, 
who had said, " It is the blood that maketh 
an atonemcjit for the soul/' and, ''The 



THE believer's SAFETY. 343 

goat shall bear upon him all their iniqui- 
ties unto a land not inhabited." 

Let us turn now to the New Testa- 
ment, and we find it written, " Christ 
being come an high priest of good things 
to come, by a greater and more perfect 
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is 
to say, not of this building ; neither by 
the blood of goats and calves, but by his 
own blood, he entered in once into the 
holy place, having obtained eternal re- 
demption for us. For if the blood of 
bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an 
heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth 
to the purifying of the flesh : how much 
more shall the blood of Christ, who 
through the eternal Spirit offered himself 
without spot to God, purge your con- 
science from dead works to serve the living 
God?"^ "Ye were not redeemed with 
corruptible things, as silver and gold, . . . 
but with the precious blood of Christ, as 
of a lamb without blemish and without 

1 Heb. ix. 11-14. 



344 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

spot."^ "The blood of Jesus Christ his 
Son cleanseth us from all sin."^ "In 
whom we have [not hope to have, nor try 
to have, nor shall have, but have\ re- 
demption through his blood." ^ "Much 
more, then, being now justified by his 
blood, we shall be saved from wrath 
through him."* "For it pleased the 
Father that in him should all fulness 
dwell; and having made peace through 
the blood of his cross," ^ of course we 
may add, we do not have to make peace, 
for it is already made, and all we are 
asked to do is to accept the overtures of 
peace extended so freely and generously 
in the gospel. Such is the plain testi- 
mony of the Holy Ghost, and to this 
must be added the testimony of the trans- 
lated saints in heaven, as recorded by the 
Holy Ghost in the book of Revelation. 
Certainly those who are in glory know 
how they got there, and the Spirit tells 

1 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. '^ 1 John i. 7. ^ ^ph. i. 7. 
* Eom. V. 9. 5 Col, i, 19^ 20. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 345 

US they raise their anthems of praise to 
the Lamb, saying, " Thou wast slain, and 
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood 
out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
people, and nation ; and hast made us 
unto our God kings and priests : and we 
shall reign on the earth." ^ 

It is the blood, then, not example, nor 
influence, nor power, but the j)i'^cious 
blood of Christ alone, that forms the 
ground of the believer's safety. It is not 
the blood and something else — the blood 
and our estimate of it, the blood and 
our thoughts about it, the blood and 
our feelings — but the blood by itself 
which was poured out upon the cross 
more than eighteen hundred years ago ; 
and if you believe that the blood of 
Jesus Christ cleanseth you from all sin, 
according to the testimony of God's word 
you are saved. God is infinitely satisfied 
with it ; and if you are satisfied, there can 
be no further cause of controversy be- 

' Rev. V. 9, 10. 



346 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

tween you and Him. His own dear Son,' 
who knew no sin, was made to be sin for 
us that we might become the righteous- 
ness of God in Him. He took our place 
under the law wdth all its dreadful conse- 
quences that we might be exalted to His 
place in heaven with all its unspeakable 
blessedness. He w^as cast out of His 
Father's presence as evil that we might 
stand in His Father's presence without 
spot, or W'rinkle, or any such thing. He 
bore the curse wdiicli we merited that we 
might receive the blessing which He 
merited. He drank the cup of wrath 
w^hich was pressed to our lips that we 
might drink of the fountain of the water 
of life freely. He endured the condem- 
nation which w^as due to us that we might 
obtain the justification which was due to 
Him. He went down into the jaws of 
death that were ready to devour us that 
we might rise to a rapturous immortality. 
He was regarded and treated as sin that 
we miglit be regarded and treated as 



THE believer's SAFETY. 347 

righteousness, and that the righteousness 
of God. Blessed Saviour! eternity will 
be too short to speak Thy praise. 

When I say that the believer is re- 
garded and treated as righteousness, I do 
not mean to affirm that he is merely re- 
garded and treated as righteous^ for he 
is righteous. God Himself declares him 
righteous, and "we are sure that the 
judgment of God is according to truth." ^ 
He cannot declare a thing to be true 
which is really untrue, and at best a 
sham, such as many of our theologians 
make the believer's standing to be. They 
deny that he is righteous, but argue that 
God treats him as if he were righteous ; 
or, in other words, they represent the 
blessed God as a party to a wretched 
delusion and pretence. If the believer 
is not righteous, God cannot treat him as 
righteous, but he is righteous, perfectly 
righteous, in Christ, for '' by him all that 
believe are justified from all things."^ 

1 Koni. ii. 2. ^ Acts xiii. 39 



348 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Christ's standing, then, is the believer's 
standing. The measure of Christ's ac- 
ceptableness in the sight of the Father is 
the precise measure of the acceptableness 
of the believer; and if you ask me to 
define a believer, I reply in the one word, 
Christ. We are "accepted in the be- 
loved."^ "We are in him that is true, 
even in his Son Jesus Christ."^ "For 
as the body is one, and hath many mem- 
bers, and all the members of that one 
body, being many, are one body : so also 
is Christ;"^ and hence the oneness be- 
tween the two is so entire that the whole 
body is called Christ, " and ye are com- 
plete in him."^ "Herein is our love 
[love with us, not our love to God, but 
God's love to us] made perfect, that we 
may have boldness in the day of judg- 
ment : because as He is, so are we in this 
world :"^ not simply, so shall we be in 
the world to come, but, so are we in this 

1 Eph. i. G. "^ 1 John v. 20. ^ 1 Cor. xii. 12. 

* Col. ii. 10. ^ 1 John iv. 17. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 349 

world. The fact is, whatever Christ did 
in achieving redemption He did " for us/' 
and, if I may so say, as us. He stood, 
as we were, under the law, that we might 
stand, as He is, before the Father. God, 
therefore, sees us as Christ in His pres- 
ence, for He " hath raised us up together, 
and made us sit together in heavenly 
places, in Christ Jesus." ^ He no longer 
views us as on the earth, but in heaven, 
and we appear to Him as Christ does. He 
sees us through the perfect righteousness 
of Christ, and " as he is, so are we." 

Such, then, is the believer's standing, 
and if so, where are his sins ? Let Hez- 
ekiah answer, who said to God in his 
prayer, " Thou hast in love to my soul 
delivered it from the pit of corruj)tion : 
for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy 
back"^ — not only some of them, but all 
of them, were cast behind God's back, 
and therefore could no longer be seen by 
Him. Let the prophet reply who, pre- 

1 Eph. ii. 6. 2 iga^ xxxviii. 17. 

30 



350 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

dieting the future restoration and conver- 
sion of Israel, exclaims, " Thou wilt cast 
all their sins into the depths of the sea.'^^ 
Here, then, are all the sins of the be- 
liever drowned in the deep waters of ob- 
livion, and not a ripple is left on the sur- 
face to indicate where they are buried. 
Is it not a pitiful business for the Chris- 
tian to be ahyays diving down in the at- 
tempt to drag to the surface these loath- 
some things and hold them up in the 
face of a smiling God ? Be sure there is 
no merit in groaning for ever over your 
sins when you are plainly and repeatedly 
told that they have been removed from 
you " as far as the east is from the west."^ 
God, of course, not only knows all that 
will occur in the future, but He remem- 
bers all that has occurred in the past, ex- 
cept one thing. There is one thing which 
He is pleased to forget, and if you wish 
to know what this is, you read in the 
Old Testament and twice in the New 

1 Mic. vii. 19. 2 pg, ciii. 12. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 351 

Testament, that, speaking of those who 
believe on His Son, He says, " Their sins 
and their iniqnities will I remember no 
more."^ "And yon, being dead in your 
sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, 
hath he [God] quickened together with 
him [Christ], having forgiven you all 
trespasses ; blotting out the handwriting 
of ordinances that was against us, which 
was contrary to us, and took it out of the 
way, nailing it to his cross." ^ There was 
everything against the believer once, but 
there is nothing against him now, for the 
law, or the handwriting of ordinances, 
having been righteously and completely 
met and satisfied, it has been blotted out ; 
and then, as if the tablet or parchment 
on which it was written might still terrify 
the Christian, it has been taken out of the 
way and nailed in triumph to the cross 
as an open proclamation to the universe 
that " there is therefore now no [not one] 
condemnation to them which are in Christ 

1 Heb. viii. 12 ; x. 17. ^ Col. ii. 13, 14. 



352 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Jesus." ^ He has become the all-sufficient 
substitute for those who believe on him, 
and hence the law has no farther claim 
upon them. Let us supj)ose that during 
the late war a man was drafted into the 
army. Let us suppose that he did not 
choose to fight, and consequently pro- 
cured a substitute to go in his place. 
Let us suppose that the substitute was 
killed in the next battle, and that under 
another act of conscription the man was 
again drafted. In that case he would 
have refused to go or to procure a substi- 
tute, on the ground that he was already 
dead so far as the law w^as concerned. 
"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are 
become dead to the law by the body of 
Christ."' 

But in addition to all that has been 
said, it is well to consider for a moment 
the believer's new nature as another proof 
of his perfect safety. The Saviour says, 
" Except a man be born again, he cannot 

^ Rom. viii. 1. ^ Rom. vii. 4. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 353 

see the kingdom of God;"^ and the 
Spirit says, " Whosoever belie veth that 
Jesus is the Christ is born of God."^ 
" For ye are all the children of God by 
faith in Christ Jesus." ^ "Whereby are 
given unto us exceeding great and pre- 
cious promises : that by these ye might 
be partakers of the divine nature."^ Of 
such passages I can only repeat what was 
said about the believer being called 
"righteous" in the Bible. God does not 
treat him merely as if righteous, but he 
is righteous. So God does not speak of 
him as if born again, but he is born 
again. He is as truly " born of God," 
" born of the Spirit," and made a " par- 
taker of the Divine nature," as he is 
born of man, born of the flesh, and made 
a partaker of the nature of his earthly 
parents. There are many who compare 
the adoption of Christians mentioned in 
the Scriptures with the adoption which 

^ John iii. 3. ^1 John v. 1, 

^ Gal. iii. 26. * 2 Pet. i. 4. 

?.o * X 



354 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

takes place among men, but there is a 
wide difference. With men children are 
transferred to .a family to which they do 
not belong by birthright, and treated as 
if they had been born in the household 
that now shelters them ; but God adopts 
His own children, having first made them 
"partakers of the diyine nature" by the 
power of His Spirit through faith in 
the promises of His word. Hence it is 
written, " Ye have not received the spirit 
of bondage again to fear ; but ye have 
received the Spirit of adoption, whereby 
we cry, Abba, Father."^ " God sent forth 
his Son, made of a woman, made under 
the law, to redeem them that were under 
the law, that we might receive the adop- 
tion of sons. And because ye are sons, 
God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son 
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."^ 
No man can say to God, " Abba, Fath- 
er,'' unless he is born again by believing 
that Jesus is the Christ ; and when the 

1 Kom. viii. 15. - Gal. iv. 4-6. 



THE BELIEVER^S SAFETY. 355 

unregenerate mumble the words, " Our 
Father which art in heaven/^ they offer 
a worship not a whit more intelligent or 
acceptable than the prostration of the 
native African before his fetich. " Be not 
deceived ; God is not mocked ;"^ for "\\e 
that honoureth not the Son honoureth not 
the Father which hath sent him." ^ Those 
who pray without faith in the Son of the 
Father's love may be very religious, as the 
Athenians were wdio reared an altar TO 
THE UNKNOWN GOD, but surely 
they are not Christians ; and the differ- 
ence between being a Christian and being 
religious is just the difference there is be- 
tween light and darkness, between heaven 
and hell. On the other hand, whosoever 
believeth on Christ is surely born of God ; 
and the thought that God can suffer His 
own child — a part of Himself, if I may 
so speak — to be eternally lost, is too mon- 
strous to be entertained for a moment. 
If you are a father or mother, you know 

1 Gal. vi. 7. -' John v. 23. 



356 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

what it is to love a little child, although 
the helpless babe may be nothing but an 
expense to you, and may not at all respond 
to your love. Your death would not dis- 
turb its happiness, nor w^ould it retain 
the slightest recollection of you, and yet 
you hang over it with unutterable affec- 
tion and tenderness. What, then, must 
be the love of God for His children, 
redeemed by the blood of His only be- 
gotten Son, although they do so little in 
His service and feel so faintly His claims 
upon their gratitude ! " Can a woman 
forget her sucking child, that she should 
not have compassion on the son of her 
womb ? yea, they may forget, yet will I 
not forget thee.'^^ This language was 
addressed to the Israelites as such, but it 
may be applied without the slightest 
strain to every one who is born again in 
the present or church dispensation. I 
will go farther, and state that God 
loves you, if you are a believer, as He 

^ Isii. xlix. 15. 



THE BELIEVERS SAFETY. 357 

loves His "well-beloved Son." Do not 
be staggered at such an assertion, but 
open wide your heart to receive the bless- 
ed truth ; for the Saviour says in His 
touching prayer for all His disciples, " I 
in them, and thou in me, that they may 
be made perfect in one ; and that the 
world may know that thou hast sent me, 
and hast loved them, as thou hast loved 
me."^ 

To this must be added the work of the 
Holy Spirit; and in glancing at it you 
need to be guarded at the outset against 
two errors into which many sincere be- 
lievers are led to their own disquietude 
and distress. The first arises from the 
common mistake of seeking amid the 
fruits of the Spirit for the ground of 
peace. It can never be found there. It 
is not the Spirit's work in us, but Christ's 
work for us, that delivers us from con- 
demnation and places us on the heaven- 
ward side of the cross beyond Judgment ; 

1 John xvii. 23. 



358 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

and it is only by looking at Christ's fin- 
ished work instead of the Spirit's unfin- 
ished work that we can find perfect repose 
of conscience and heart. The second error 
arises from the still more common mis- 
take of thinking, or, at least, of practi- 
cally acting, about the Spirit as if He 
came on occasional and uncertain visits 
to the believer, in place of knowing that 
He abides with us for ever. Many Chris- 
tians are continually singing and pray- 
ing, " Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove," 
but He is already come. They may say 
they know this, and do not intend to 
intimate that He is really absent from 
them, but it is very important to avoid 
the use of language that does not express 
the precise truth on such a subject. 
Owing to the constant employment of in- 
correct language, even admitting a correct 
knowledge lying back of it, it has come 
to pass that multitudes are guilty of the 
fearful sin of regarding the Spirit rather 
as an influence than as a Divine person, 



THE believer's SAFETY. 359 

and multitudes more look upon Him as a 
cloud moving about from one church to 
another, or visiting some sections of the 
country with His refreshing presence, 
while other sections are necessarily left 
during His absence parched and desolate. 
When our Lord was about to take His 
dejDarture from the earth He said to His 
disciples, " I will pray the Father, and he 
shall give you another Comforter, that he 
may abide with you for ever ; even the 
Spirit of truth ; whom the world cannot 
receive, because it seeth him not, neither 
knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he 
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."^ 
" What ? know ye not that your body is 
the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is 
in you, which ye have of God, and ye are 
not your own?"^ '^ In whom [Christ] 
also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed 
with that holy Spirit of promise."^ The 
sealing, then, with the Holy Spirit, not 
only marks the believer as God's prop- 

1 John xiv. 16, 17. 2 I Cqj, ^.^ 29 a j^^j^ -^ 13 



360 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

erty, but renders him perfectly secure, 
and is the " earnest of our inheritance/' 
part of the inheritance already bestowed, 
as a Divine guarantee that all the rest 
will be given in due time, " for the gifts 
and calling of God are without repent- 
ance."^ The Spirit, who abideth with us 
for ever, who is in us, and who seals us 
unto the day of redemption, is never 
taken from us ; and we would be far more 
profitably engaged if, instead of praying 
and singing, " Come, Holy Spirit, heav- 
enly dove," we laid to heart the solemn 
admonition of the Sacred Scriptures ad- 
dressed to Christians, " Grieve not the 
holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed 
unto the day of redemption."^ What 
we are called to do is to judge ourselves 
according to the w^ord of Truth,. and to 
put away all that the word shows us is a 
grief to the Holy Spirit : " For if we 
would judge ourselves, we should not be 
judged. But when we are judged, we 

1 Kom. xi. 29. ^ gph. iv. 30. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 361 

are chastened of the Lord, that we should 
not be condemned with the world." ^ It 
is a sweet truth that the Lord judges and 
chastens His children not to condemn 
them, but to reclaim them from their 
wanderings ; and the moment they re- 
pent of the evil into which they have 
been betrayed the Spirit again manifests 
the blessedness and energy of His pres- 
ence. That Spirit never withdraws from 
true believers, and His permanent abode 
in th^ir hearts becomes therefore the sure 
pledge of their salvation. 

But it may be asked whether the con- 
sciousness of indwelling sin and the slow 
and irregular growth of most Christians 
in sanctification are not arguments against 
the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost, 
and hence against the believer's perfect 
safety? That they are not will be ap- 
parent if you will keep in mind who and 
what the believer is. As shown in a pre- 
vious chapter, he is a child of man and 

1 1 Cor. xi. 31, 32. 
31 



362 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

at the same time a child of God. He 
has two natures, one born of the flesh 
and the other of the Spirit ; one called 
the " old man/' and the other the " new 
man." " The flesh lusteth against the 
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh : 
and these are contrary the one to the 
other." ^ As long, therefore, as the flesh 
is in him he wdll have a consciousness of 
sin in him; but if he is an intelligent 
believer, he will not have a conscience of 
sins on him, " because that the worship- 
pers once purged should have had no 
more conscience of sins."^ Christ hath 
" appeared to put away sin by the sacri- 
fice of himself;"^ and if it is put away, 
it can no longer be on the believer. 
" Who his ow^n self bare our sins in his 
own body on the tree ;"^ and if He bare 
them in His own body, surely they can- 
not be on us. The condemning powder 
of sin, therefore, or its power to destroy, 

^ Gal. V. 17. 2 Heb. x. 2. 

3 Heb. ix. 26. ^ 1 Pet. ii. 24. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 363 

is for ever gone, even while its presence 
in the old nature is still a source of mor- 
tification and annoyance. Suppose an 
enormous serpent should spring upon you 
from its covert and fold you in its horrid 
embrace, but as it was preparing, with 
glittering eye and darting tongue, to inflict 
the fatal sting, a friend standing near, by 
a well-directed blow, severed its head from 
the body, and it fell dead around your 
neck and arms. If you could not get rid 
of it immediately, but were compelled to 
carry it about for a while, its presence 
w^ould doubtless distress and disgust you, 
and sometimes wring from you the anx- 
ious cry, " O wretched man that I am ! 
who shall deliver me from the body of 
this death ?"^ but you w^ould know that 
it could no longer kill or injure you. 
'' Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to 
be dead indeed unto sin;"^ "knowing 
this, that our old man is [was] crucified 
with him [Christ], that the body of sin 

^ Rom. vii. 24. ^ Rom. vi. 11. 



364 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

might be destroyed, that henceforth we 
should not serve sm ;"^ " for sm shall not 
have dominion over you : for ye are not 
under the law^ but under grace." ^ The 
consciousness of indwelling sin, therefore, 
cannot shake the security of the believer, 
because the Holy Spirit also dwells in 
him, the author and upholder of the " new 
creature" in Christ Jesus, and sweetly 
whispers to his troubled heart, " The God 
of peace shall bruise Satan under your 
feet shortly."^ 

In close connection with this, it may 
be useful to call your attention for a mo- 
ment to the feeble and varying progress 
in sanctification which is a source of grief 
and dread to so many true Christians. 
They are perplexed and pained when 
they think of this important doctrine, 
because they view it only on one side, 
not remembering that, like almost every 
other truth of God's word, it has two 
sides, each of which must be carefully 

^ Kom. vi. 6. 2 Kom. vi. 14. ^ Kom. xvi. 20. 



THE BELIEVEk's SAFETY. 365 

considered. If you look at justification, 
for example, you will find Paul arguing 
that on the Divine side, or in God's sight, 
it is by faith alone, while James argues 
that on the human side, or in man's sight, 
it is by works also. So on the Divine 
side, or in God's sight, our sanctification 
is by the blood of Christ, and complete 
as soon as w^e believe on Him, while on 
the human side, or in man's sight, it is 
progressive and carried on by the Holy 
Spirit dwelling in us and enabling us 
" more and more to die unto sin, and live 
unto righteousness." 

The fundamental idea, as well as the 
object, of Sanctification, is fitness for the 
divine ^presence and service^ and it is in 
this sense the word is used when I afiirm 
that such fitness w^e have the moment we 
are in Christ by faith. Now, if you will 
turn to the Epistle to the Corinthians, 
you will see that the apostle addresses 
" the Church of God which is at Corinth, 
to them that are sanctified in Christ 

31 * 



366 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Jesus." ^ He is about to rebuke them for 
erroneous doctrines and evil practices, 
but still he does not hesitate to write to 
them as those that are sanctified. We 
look a little farther and read, " Of him 
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is 
made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, 
and sanctification, and redemj)tion."^ 
Christ, then, is as much our sanctification 
as He is our wisdom, righteousness, and 
redemption. Many separate these words 
most unwarrantably, referring righteous- 
ness to Christ, but sanctification to our- 
selves, admitting that we must depend on 
Christ for righteousness, but supposing 
that we must depend upon our own ex- 
ertions for sanctification ; seeing clearly 
that we are justified by faith, but not 
seeing that we are sanctified by faith. 

When our risen Lord appeared to Saul 
of Tarsus, on the road to Damascus, and 
converted him from the error of his way, 
He directed the regenerated persecutor to 

1 1 Cor. i. 2. '' 1 Cor. i. 30. 



THE BELIEVER^S SAFETY. 367 

preach to the Gentiles, " that they may 
receive forgiveness of sins, and inherit- 
ance among them which are sanctified 
by faith that is in me."^ It is not sur- 
prising, then, that this apostle, in writing 
to certain Christians, some of whom, he 
declares, had been fornicators, and idol- 
aters, and adulterers, and thieves, and 
drunkards, should so boldly add, " But 
ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but 
ye are justified in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."*^ 
They were as truly and completely sanc- 
tified as they were washed and justified. 
Accordingly, it is said that the Saviour 
came to do the will of God, "by the 
which will we are sanctified through the 
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once 
for all/'^ " For by one offering he hath 
perfected for ever them that are sancti- 
fied."'^ ''Wherefore Jesus also, that he 
might sanctify the people with his own 

1 Acts xxvi. 18. 2 I Qqj.^ ^i 11^ 

3 Heb. X. 10. * Heb. x. 14. 



368 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

blood, suffered without the gate." ^ Hence 
the word of God places our justification 
and our sanctification on precisely the 
same Divine and immutable foundation, 
even the precious blood of Jesus. We 
are not partly justified, neither are we 
partly sanctified, and you have no better 
right to put the word "partly" before 
the word " sanctified," as it applies to the 
believer, than you have to put it before 
the word "justified." 

The moment we are in Christ by be- 
lieving on Him, God says we are sancti- 
fied — not shall be, nor try to be, nor hope 
to be, but "Ye are sanctified." Not only 
is it true that the justice of the satisfied 
law brings no accusation against us, but 
the holiness of the law finds no spot nor 
stain upon us ; no, not the slightest. We 
are "clean every whit" — as clean as the 
blood of Christ and the will of God can 
make us. When we receive the Saviour 
by faith we do not receive a divided Sa- 

1 Heb. xiii. 12. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 369 

viour, but "Christ is all, and in all."^ 
He is wisdom, righteousness, sanctifica- 
tion, and redem^^tion, and sanctification 
no less than everything else the soul 
needs. It is forgetfulness or ignorance 
of this blessed truth that leads so many 
sincere believers to doubt their safety, 
and opens the way for Satan to cast the 
shadows of a deep gloom along the path 
of their pilgrimage. ■ They are seeking 
for comfort in a gradual sanctification 
instead of an offered sacrifice — in a pro- 
gressive work of holiness in them instead 
of an accomplished work of redemption 
already done for them. They will never 
find it thus. On the other hand, they 
will surely discover that the "flesh" is 
always the " flesh," and that the " old man" 
will be deceitful and desperately wdcked 
to the end of the journey. But when 
we put on the " new man" our jDlace and 
portion are in the heavenlies, and our 
position before God is perfect in every 

1 Col. iii. 11. 
Y 



370 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

respect, for " we are in liim that is true, 
even in his Son Jesus Christ."^ The 
practical results of this perfect sanctifica- 
tion will be more and more perfectly 
developed in the sight of men, and 
shine more and more unto the perfect 
day ; but it is the happy privilege of the 
Christian to know that by the one offer- 
ing of Christ he is perfected for ever as 
already sanctified, and therefore, what- 
ever conflicts and defeats he may meet 
on the way, it is still true that ^^who- 
soever believeth on him shall not be 
ashamed." 

The limits which I have assigned to 
this chapter forbid a farther discussion 
of the subject at present, but it will come 
up again when we consider the promises 
addressed to the believer calling on the 
Lord. Enough, however, has been said 
to convince you, if you will receive the 
testimony of the word of Truth, that all, 
without exception, who trust in Jesus, 

1 1 John V. 20. 



THE believer's SAFETY. 371 

are now and for ever saved ; for " God, 
willing more abundantly to show unto 
the heirs of promise the immutability of 
his counsel, confirmed it by an oath : that 
by two immutable things piis promise 
and his oath], in which it was impossible 
for God to lie, we might have a strong 
consolation, who have fled for refuge to 
lay hold upon the hope set before us : 
which hope we have as an anchor of the 
soul, both sure and steadfast, and which 
entereth into that within the veil ; whither 
the forerunner is for us entered, even 
Jesus, made a high priest for ever, after 
the order of Melchisedek."^ 

" I hear the words of love, 
I gaze upon the blood, 
I see the mighty Sacrifice, 
And I have peace with God. 

" 'Tis everlasting peace, 

Sure as Jehovah's name; 
'Tis stable as His steadfast throne ; 
For evermore the same. 

1 Heb. vi. 17-20. 



372 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

^' The clouds may go and come, 
And storms may sweep my sky : 
This blood-sealed friendship changes not ; 
The cross is ever nigh. 

" My love is ofttimes low, 

My joy still ebbs and flows ; 
But peace with Him remains the same : 
No change Jehovah knows. 

" That which can shake the cross 
May shake the peace it gave, 
Which tells me Christ has never died. 
Or never left the grave. 

" I change, He changes not ; 
The Christ can never die ; 
His love, not mine, the resting-place ; 
His truth, not mine, the tie." 




CHAPTER XVII. 

THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD, 

' For there is no difference between ttie Jew and the 
Greek ; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that 
call upon him."— Romans x. 12. 

I HEN Peter was directed by the 
Spirit to visit the Roman centu- 
rion, Cornelius, in the city of 
Cesarea, he listened with amaze- 
ment to the statements of the Gentile 
officer, and then opened his mouth and 
said, " Of a truth I perceive that God is 
no respecter of persons ; but in every na- 
tion he that feareth him, and worketh 
righteousness, is accepted with him."^ 
Of course he did not mean to teach that 
the fear of God and our personal works 
of righteousness form the ground or rea- 

1 Acts X. 34, 35. 
32 373 



374 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

son of our acceptance, for such a doc- 
trine would not only contradict the whole 
tenor of Sacred Scripture, but it would 
be in direct conflict with the apostle's 
own testimony on this very occasion. At 
the close of the address of which the 
words just quoted are the beginning, 
after speaking of the death and resurrec- 
tion of Jesus, he adds, " To him giye all 
the prophets witness, that through his 
name whosoever believeth in him shall 
receive remission of sins."^ He could 
not, therefore, be guilty of the absurdity 
of affirming in one breath that we are 
saved by our fear of God and works of 
righteousness, and in another breath that 
we are saved according to the witness of 
all the prophets only through faith in 
Christ. He obviously designed to assert 
that whatever is acceptable to Jehovah in 
one nation is acceptable in any other, 
without reference to the ground of accept- 
ance. Man's filial fear of God and works 

' Acts X. 43. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 375 

of righteousness are nowhere in the Bible 
presented as the cause, but as the conse- 
quence, of acceptance. They are not the 
conditions on which salvation is bestowed, 
but the fruits of salvation received. 

These fruits, how^ever, are not now con- 
fined to the land of Palestine, " for there 
is no difference between the Jew and the 
Greek." Once saving mercy was revealed 
to a single race, but when " God was 
manifest in the flesh," ^ to accomplish 
human redemption, grace, overflowed, as 
it were, the narrow bounds, and spread 
like a sea of glory from pole to pole. In 
the language of Dr. Chalmers, comment- 
ing on the words placed at the head of 
this chapter, the precious truth here an- 
nounced " invests with an ample warrant 
the messengers of salvation, who might go 
forth the bearers of a full and unexcepted 
commission, to assail even a whole world 
lying in wickedness and unconcern, by 
plying with the overtures of a free salva- 

1 1 Tim. iii. IG. 



376 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

tion, each and every individual of the 
great human family. God, it is said 
here, makes no difference between the 
Jew and the Greek ; and there are some 
who, in defending the articles of their 
own scientific theology, would make the 
universality of the gospel offer lie in this, 
that now, when the middle wall of parti- 
tion is broken down, it might be offered 
to men of every nation. But the scrip- 
tural theology carries the universality 
farther down than this — and so as that 
the gospel might be offered, not merely 
to men of every nation, but to each man 
of every nation. God is not only no re- 
specter of nations, He is no respecter of 
persons. It is not only whatsoever na- 
tion shall call on the name of the Lord 
shall be saved, but whatsoever man of 
that nation shall call upon the name of 
the Lord, he shall be saved. '^ 

The word Lord as a title descriptive of 
God always refers in the New Testament 
to Jesus Christ, except in the few instances 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 377 

where the context shows that the Father 
or the Holy Ghost is meant. When, 
therefore, it is written, " The same Lord 
over all is rich unto all that call upon 
him," our minds are to turn particularly 
to the Second person of the adorable 
Trinity, though, of course, not to the ex- 
clusion of the First and Third persons. 
What one does the others do, and the 
purposes and resources of one are the 
purposes and resources of the others. But 
because of Christ's atoning death on the 
cross, " God also hath highly exalted him, 
and given him a name which is above 
every name : that at the name of Jesus 
every knee should bow, of things in 
heaven, and things in earth, and things 
under the earth ; and that every tongue 
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father."^ The 
Spirit of truth also, says the Saviour, 
" shall not speak of himself; but whatso- 
ever he shall hear, that shall he speak : 

1 Phil. ii. 9-11. 

32* 



378 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

and he will show you things to come. 
He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive 
of mine, and shall shew it unto you."^ 
Both of these Divine persons, then, re- 
joice to see the Son honoured, and listen, 
no doubt, with delight to the voices of 
believers singing the noble hymn : 

" A-ll hail the power of Jesus' name ! 
Let angels prostrate fall ; 
Bring forth the royal diadem, 
To crown Him Lord of all." 

It is a sweet consolation to many souls, 
burdened with the crushing memory of 
some past crime or with the heavy sor- 
rows of life, to feel that they can go with 
their confessions and supplications di- 
rectly to " the second man, the Lord from 
heaven."^ If they are trusting in Him 
alone for salvation, they can understand 
the cheering language of the inspired 
apostle when he says, " Seeing, then, that 
we have a great high priest, that is passed 
into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, 

1 Joluixvi. 13, 14. 2 I (^^j, XV. 47. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 379 

let US hold fast our profession. For we 
have not a high priest which cannot be 
touched with the feeling of our infirmi- 
ties ; but was in all points tempted like 
as we are, yet without sin. Let us there- 
fore come boldly unto the throne of grace, 
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace 
to help in time of need."^ An uncon- 
verted friend of mine, in extreme sick- 
ness and sufiering, replied to a visitor 
who urged him to look to God for help, 
" Do not talk to me about God, whom I 
cannot comprehend, but tell me about 
Jesus, for my thoughts can grasp one 
who as a man has the experience and 
sympathies of a man." His language is 
not to be approved, for the Saviour says, 
"He that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father;"^ and as this Saviour is called 
" the Word,"^ He sustains to the unseen 
Father the same relation that a word does 
to thought : He is God expressed or ut- 
tered, if I may so speak, "for in him 

1 Heb. iv. 14-lG. ^ j^^i^j^ ^iv. 9. ^ j^i^^ i j^ 



380 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

dwelletli all the fulness of the Godhead 
bodily."^ 

Still, without detracting in the slightest 
degree from the infinite loye and tender- 
ness of the Father, there are periods in 
our history which drive us with our peti- 
tions more immediately to Him who knew, 
as we know, the force of fierce tempta- 
tions, and who, " when he had by him- 
self purged our sins, sat down on the 
right hand of the Majesty on higli."^ 
" For verily he took not on him the na- 
ture of angels, but he took on him the 
seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all 
things it behooved him to be made like 
unto his brethren, that he might be a 
merciful and faithful high priest in things 
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation 
for the sins of the people. For in that 
he himself hath suffered being tempted, 
he is able to succour them that are tempt- 
ed."^ All that call upon Him in all their 
manifold trials and various troubles ad- 

1 Col. ii. 9. 2 Heb. i. 3. ^ Heb. ii. 16-18. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 381 

dress their supplications to a gracious 
Lord who trod the rough path they are 
required to follow, and hence can enter 
into their feelings, share their sufferings, 
and pity their infirmities. A number of 
persons may assemble at a funeral, and 
all of them will know that the mother or 
wife who is weeping by the side of her 
dead is sorely bereaved, but they who 
have endured a similar affliction will 
know it in a different sense from the 
others and utter their words of condo- 
lence with a deeper meaning. So the 
Lord on whom we call, and " who in the 
days of his flesh, when he had oftered up 
prayers and supplications with strong 
crying and tears unto him that was able 
to save him from death," ^ has a personal 
and practical acquaintance with the anx- 
ieties and cares to which His disciples are 
exposed, and whispers to their troubled 
hearts words of most precious symj)athy. 
" In all their affliction he was afflicted."^ 

1 Heb. V. 7. 2 iga. ixiii. 9. 



382 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

" Surely he hath borne our griefs, and 
carried our sorrows."^ ^^ Himself took 
our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses."^ 
But you will observe that only believ- 
ers can truly call on him : for unless we 
believe that He died for our sins, and 
rose again for our justification, and now 
liveth to make intercession for us, Head 
over all things to the Church, King of 
kings, and Lord of lords, it is impossible 
to present our petitions before His throne. 
When, therefore, we pray to Him, we are 
praying to One whom it is our duty to 
honour in all respects even as we honour 
the Ancient of days from whose bosom 
He came down into our world ; though it 
is a more exact definition of Christian 
prayer to say that it is the sincere expres- 
•sion of our hearts' desires to God the 
Father, in the name of God the Son, for 
those things that are suggested to us by 
God the Holy Ghost. " Likewise the 
Spirit also helpeth our infirmities : for we 

1 Isa. liii. 4. 2 ]yj^^tt. viii. 17. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 383 

know not what we should pray for as we 
ought : but the Spirit itself maketh in- 
tercession for us with groanings which 
cannot be uttered."^ Again, our Saviour 
declares, " Whatsoever ye shall ask in my 
name, that will I do, that the Father may 
be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask 
any thing in my name, I will do it."^ 
Here, then, we learn that the Spirit help- 
eth our infirmities by showing us what 
we should pray for as we ought, and that 
our supplications are to be offered in the 
name of Jesus, who speaks as a mighty 
God and promises to do whatsoever we 
thus ask. Hence the important question 
at once arises. What is it to ask in the 
name of Jesus ? Is it merely to say at 
the conclusion of our prayers, " This we 
ask in the name or for the sake of Jesus ?" 
Surely not. 

Suppose you were exceedingly anxious 
to obtain a favour from an earthly poten- 
tate, but knew that you had no influence 

1 Eoin. viii. 26. 2 joj^j^ ^iv. 13, 14. 



384 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

whatever in his court, and that you could 
not even gain admittance into his pres- 
ence without the aid of others. In this 
extremity you go to a friend who stands 
higher in the esteem of the monarch than 
all other persons in the realm, and who 
is deeply interested in the success of 
your suit He gives you a letter of in- 
troduction and recommendation, warmly 
espousing your cause. With such a letter 
you may command easy access to the 
throne, and while urging your request 
you are but expressing the known wishes 
of your powerful friend, and representing 
him indeed in the audience-chamber of 
the sovereign. You are speaking as he 
would have you speak, as he would 
speak if he were in your place, and your 
petition is granted because it is under- 
stood to convey the desires of one who 
may not be denied. Suppose you should 
present your check with nothing but 
your own signature uj)on it at the coun- 
ter of a bank where not a cent was on de- 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 385 

posit to your credit. Of course it would 
be instantly rejected, but if you should 
return and exhibit a check signed by a 
friend who had thousands stored away in 
the coflfers of the association, it would be 
promptly accepted and paid, because you 
would appear in the name and as the rep- 
resentative of another who was entitled to 
the highest consideration. 

In like manner, if you attempt to ap- 
proach the eternal throne in your own 
name or depending for acce2:)tance upon 
the fact that you pray, we well know the 
result, for God's word says, "He that 
turneth away his ear from hearing the 
law, even his prayer shall be abomina- 
tion."^ "If I regard iniquity in my 
heart," says the Psalmist, " the Lord will 
not hear me,"^ "The sacrifice of the 
wicked is an abomination to the Lord : 
but the prayer of the upright is his de- 
light."^ Now, the fact is we have all 
turned away the ear from hearing the 

1 Prov. xxviii. 9. ^ pg j^^- jg 3 p^ov, xv. 8. 

33 Z 



386 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

law ; we have all regarded iniquity in the 
heart, and continue to regard it until 
born again through faith in Christ, for 
it is the crowning sin of man's innumer- 
able transgressions that he refuses to be- 
lieve on Jesus ; we all bring forward, in 
our vain religiousness, the sacrifice of the 
wicked, and never present the prayer of 
the upright until we are made the right- 
eousness of God in his dear Sou. But 
when we receive and rest upon Him alone 
for salvation as He is freely offered to us 
in the gospel, then He gives us His own 
standing before the Father's throne ; then 
we know what it is to pray in His name ; 
for God sees us in Him, and hears in our 
prayer His voice, for He and we are one : 
we representing Him in the presence of 
God ; to pray sustained by the infinite 
merits of His atoning blood ; to pray en- 
dorsed by Him as His friends and breth- 
ren ; to pray, as He would have us pray, 
under the suggestions and teachings of 
His blessed Spirit abiding with us for ever. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 387 

Hence we see how fearfully abused 
and j)erverted is that beautiful form of 
sup23lication commonly called the Lord's 
Prayer. The meaningless jargon of the 
rudest heathenism is not a more shocking 
mockery of true and acceptable worship 
than is the manner in which multitudes 
in Christian lands are in the habit of say- 
ing, " Our Father which art in heaven." 
Thousands of the unregenerate, who are 
bound, soul and body, to the world by 
the ties of an idolatrous attachment, and 
who rush with mad eagerness from one 
scene to another of God-forgetting and 
God-defying revelry, hope to gain the 
ear of the Almighty by the utterance of 
this sublime language, and thus lull the 
conscience into the fatal slumber of a 
profounder insensibility. They do not 
seem to know that we are the children of 
God by faith in Christ Jesus, and hence 
that believers alone can say w^ith any pro- 
priety, " Our Father which art in heav- 
en." One single petition in this wonder- 



388 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

ful prayer would consign them to per- 
dition if answered. Let any man intelli- 
gently and sincerely address the Searcher 
of hearts with the words, " Forgive us our 
debts, as we forgive our debtors ; '' and if 
he depends on this for salvation, he simply 
invokes destruction upon himself; for if 
the Divine forgiveness is extended to him 
only as he extends forgiveness to those 
indebted to him, a moment's serious re- 
flection will convince him that he is hope- 
lessly lost. But even if we were able to 
forgive others as fully and freely as we 
desire God to forgive us, still this could 
not be the meritorious cause of our salva- 
tion, unless the whole work of Christ is 
in vain, and unless the whole Bible from 
Genesis to Kevelation is an idle fable, 
for it declares in every conceivable form 
of statement that " without shedding of 
blood is no remission."^ 

The name of Jesus is nowhere men- 
tioned in the prayer, and it was plainly 

1 Heb. ix. 22. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 389 

intended only for His disciples in their 
circumstances at that particular time. It 
was given to them before He became the 
end of the law for righteousness to every 
one that believeth, and opened a ncAV 
and living way of access to the Father 
through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. 
There is not the slightest allusion to it 
in any of the inspired Epistles, nor is 
there the slightest reason to suppose that 
it was designed for permanent use, 
although it must for ever remain un- 
speakably precious to the Christian be- 
cause it is in the words of our Lord, and 
contains a remarkable summary of the 
petitions proj)er for those w^ho are already 
saved through the merits of His blood. 
We have His own authority for asserting 
that He did not require its continued em- 
ployment after His death, and resurrec- 
tion, and the descent of the Holy Ghost ; 
for when He was about to take His de- 
parture from the disciples He addressed 
them thus : " Verily, verily, I say unto 

33* 



390 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father 
in my name, he will give it you. Hith- 
erto have ye asked nothing in my name : 
ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy 
may be full."^ Again, '^ At that day ye 
shall ask in my name."^ At what day? 
The day when the promised Spirit should 
come to teach them the true nature of 
His kingdom, and of their mission, and 
to gather out of the world a church to be 
builded together for a habitation of God. 
After that day the disciples had very dif- 
ferent views of the purpose of Christ's 
first advent to earth, and of the testimony 
of the gospel, and of their oneness with 
the Saviour; and therefore the prayer 
which they used as children slowly learn- 
ing the alphabet of Christianity could 
not suitably and fully express their en- 
larged desires when enlightened by the 
Holy Ghost to behold the matchless worth 
of the name of Jesus. 

Praying in that name, they had the 

1 John xvi. 23, 24. ^ j^j^^ xvi. 26. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 391 

positive, unmistakable assurance that 
whatsoever they asked He would do it 
that the Father might be glorified in the 
Son. It is so still ; and if we would only 
pray in the consciousness of our complete 
acceptance in Christ, and as expressing 
His mind and will, we could remove 
mountains, and nothing should be im- 
possible unto us. Such prayer, though 
breathed by the prisoner in his lonely 
dungeon or lisped by the tongue of in- 
fancy, goes rushing across the universe, 
"mighty through God to the pulling 
down of strong holds ;"^ swifter than the 
lightning ; more powerful than the hur- 
ricane. " Elias was a man subject to like 
passions as we are, and he prayed earn- 
estly that it might not rain : and it rained 
not on the earth by the space of three 
years and six months. And he prayed 
again, and the heavens gave rain, and the 
earth brought forth her fruit." ^ "All 
things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, 

12 Cor. X. 4. 2 jj^j^^g.,^ 17^ 18. 



392 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

believing, ye shall receive."^ " Ask, and 
it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall 
find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto 
you : for every one that asketh receiveth ; 
and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him 
that knocketh it shall be opened. Or 
what man is there of you, whom if his 
son ask bread, will he give him a stone ? 
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a 
serpent? If ye then, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts unto your chil- 
dren, how much more shall vour Father 
which is in heaven give good things to 
them that ask him ?"^ 

These ]3romises, and scores of others 
like them that could be quoted, are to be 
taken in their plain, obvious sense, and 
they are not to be fettered by human 
doubt nor explained away by human 
criticism. The Sacred Scriptures are full 
of striking illustrations which prove that 
God means precisely what He says when 
He declares that ^^the effectual fervent 

1 Matt. xxi. 22. ^ j^j^^^. vii. 7-11. 



THE BELIEVEE CALLING ON THE LORD. 393 

prayer of a righteous man ayaileth 
much/'^ ''for the same Lord over all 
is rich unto all that call upon him." He 
is rich in all the plentitude of the Divine 
perfections ; rich in the absolute control 
of His boundless empire that in all its 
shining suns and countless systems, in all 
its loftiest intelligences and minutest forms 
of life, is subject to His imperial com- 
mand ; and rich in the inexhaustible ful- 
ness of His love to believers of every 
race and rank. He possesses omnipo- 
tence, and is able therefore to help His 
people who call on Him : " For by him 
were all things created, that are in heaven, 
and that are in earth, visible and invisi- 
ble, whether they be thrones, or domin- 
ions, or principalities, or powers : all things 
were created by him, and for him : and 
he is before all things, and by him all 
things consist."^ " All power," He says, 
" is given unto me in heaven and in 
earth ;"^ and He proclaims Himself to 

1 James v. 16. ^ Col. i. 16, 17. ^ Matt, xxviii. 18. 



394 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

be the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning 
and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, 
and which was, and which is to come, the 
Almighty."^ 

He possesses omniscience, and can 
therefore foresee and guard against all 
the schemes of devils and alLtlie contin- 
gencies of human events that may threaten 
to arrest the bestowal of His purposed and 
promised blessings upon His disciples. 
" Even the very hairs of your head are 
all numbered,"^ He says; and, "I am 
he which searcheth the reins and hearts,"^ 
He declares. " Lord," exclaimed Peter, 
"thou knowest all things;"^ and hence 
it is evident that His mind is perfectly 
familiar with all that has occurred in the 
past, and all that shall occur in the future ; 
and takes knowledge not only of the 
march of tempests, the revolution of 
planets, and the rise and fall of empires, 
but also of the silent budding of a 

1 Kev. i. 8. 2 Lu]^e xii. 7. 

3 Kev. ii. 23. * John xxi. 17. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 395 

rose and the noiseless flight of an insect. 
Like the ocean, 

" Vast as it is, it answers as it flows, 
The breathing of the lightest air that blows.'' 

He possesses unchangeable faithfulness, 
and therefore we may rely upon His word 
with implicit confidence. " Faithful is he 
that calleth you, who also will do it,"^ 
writes the apostle. " The Lord is faithful, 
who shall stablish you, and keep you from 
evil."^ " Let us hold fast the profession 
of our faith w^ithout wavering (for he is 
faithful that promised)."'^ ^^ And I saw 
heaven opened, and behold a white horse ; 
and he that sat upon him was called 
Faithful and True.""^ He possesses in- 
finite love for those who have been re- 
deemed with His precious blood, and 
therefore cannot deny them any petition 
which it is best for them to receive. 
'' Having loved his own which were in 
the world, he loved them unto the end."^ 

1 1 Thess. V. 24. ^ 2 Thess. iii. 3. ^ Heb. x. 23. 
* Rev. xix. 11, ^ John xiii. 1. 



396 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

" Greater love hath no man than this, 
that a man lay down his life for his 
friends."^ " He that loveth me shall be 
loved of my Father, and I will love him, 
and will manifest myself to him."^ " As 
the Father hath loved me, so have I loved 
yon."^ " The life which I now live in the 
flesh," says Paul, " I live by the faith of 
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave 
himself for me."^ " Christ also loved the 
church, and gave himself for it."^ 

Oh how rich He is in His own eternal 
and immeasurable resources to all that 
call on Him ! There is no possible con- 
dition in which we can be placed that 
may deprive us of the privilege of prayer ; 
and quick as thought can ascend to our 
Lord at the right hand of the Father, 
His eye is turned towards our longing 
glance and His heart responds to our 
trustful desire. " And this is the confi- 
dence that we have in him, that, if we 

1 John XV. 13. 2 joi^n xiv. 21. ^ John xv. 9. 

^ Gal. ii. 20. ^ Eph. v. 25. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 397 

ask anything according to his will, he 
heareth us : and if we know that he hear 
us, whatsoever we ask, we know" that we 
have the petitions that we desired of 
him."^ He "is able to do exceeding 
abundantly above all that we ask or 
think," ^ for the name by which he in- 
troduced Himself to Moses in the soli- 
tudes of Horeb, and the name that is 
still appropriate to Him, is the I AM. 
As another has beautifully said, in taking 
this title He was " furnishing His peo- 
l^le wdth a blank check to be filled up to 
any amount. He calls Himself I AM, 
and faith has but to write over against 
that ineffably precious name whatever we 
w^ant." Do we w^ant pardon, justification, 
adoption, sanctification, support in weak- 
ness, consolation in sorrow, guidance in 
perplexity, deliverance from temptation, 
victory over death, full redemption, and 
unfading glory? I AM all this, says 
Christ, and all that you desire. 

1 1 John V. 14, 15. 2 Eph. iii. 20. 

34 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 

iN the light of this precious truth 



^1|| every believer may be addressed 
^i^ in the language of Elisha to "a 
^ certain woman of the wives of the 
sons of the prophets," who was reduced 
to the last pot of oil, and whose sons were 
about to be taken by the creditor as 
bondmen. " Go," he said, " borrow thee 
vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, 
even empty vessels; borrow not a few."^ 
AVith faith in the word of God spoken 
by His servant, she obeyed the direction, 
and it was only when there was not a 
vessel more that the oil stayed. So, 
when we can go to the Lord emj)tied of 
self and the world, and relying with im- 

^ 2 Kings iv. 3. 
398 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 399 

plicit confidence upon His j^romises, we 
shall receive from His inexhaustible re- 
sources " above all that we ask or think," 
and never until faith fails will the sup- 
plies which it commands cease. By a 
law more fixed and more unalterable 
than the law of gravitation, God has de- 
termined that whatsoever we ask in the 
name of Jesus, it shall be done for us. 
It may be that the instrumentality by 
which this amazing result is produced 
was included from the first in the depart- 
ment men call " natural," and that it be- 
longed to the original, comprehensive 
plan which embraced the physical ar- 
rangement and government of the earth ; 
but without undertaking to discuss such 
a question, about the result itself there is 
not the shadow of doubt. Prayer as- 
cends from an earnest heart for those 
things that are according to the will of 
our Lord ; and without the slightest dis- 
turbance in the delicate mechanism of the 
universe, without the faintest discord in 



400 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the " music of the sj)heres," as softly and 
silently as the snowflake falls from heav- 
en, as certainly and surely as the ripened 
fruit drops from the shaken bough to the 
outstretched hand beneath, does it call 
down blessings upon the believing sup- 
pliant. 

We are never straitened in God, but 
only in ourselves ; for when temptations 
assail, or troubles arise, we too often fail 
to put Christ, by faith, between them 
and us, and too often through unbelief 
put them between Christ and us, so that 
w^e lose courage and power. Ten of the 
twelve spies w^ho were sent from all the 
tribes of Israel to search out the land of 
Canaan returned in great fear, saying, 
" We be not able to go up against the 
people ; for they are stronger than we. 
. . . And there we saw the giants, the 
sons of Anak, which come of the giants ; 
and we were in our own sight as grass- 
hoppers, and so we were in their sight." ^ 

1 Num. xiii. 31-33. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 401 

But Caleb endeavoured to , quiet the 
alarmed congregation with the bold lan- 
guage, " Let us go up at once and possess 
it ; for we are well able to overcome it/' and 
Joshua and Caleb thus warned and en- 
couraged their brethren : " Only rebel not 
ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the 
people of the land ; for they are bread 
for us ; their defence is departed from 
them, and the Lord is with us : fear 
them not."^ The ten fixed their minds 
uj)on the giants, not the Lord, and there- 
fore could think of nothing but disaster, 
defeat, and death, while the two believ- 
ers fixed their minds upon the Lord, not 
the giants, and therefore could think of 
nothing but deliverance, and success, and 
victory. The former were already un- 
manned because they looked not to the 
hills wdience cometh our help, but the 
latter cared not whether their conflict 
lay w^itli giants or grasshojopers, because 
they could confidently say, " They that 

^ Num. xiii. 30 ; xiv. 9. 
34 * 2 A 



402 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

be with us are more than they that be 
with them."^ So when David was sent 
by his father, from attending a "few 
sheep in the wilderness/' with parched 
corn and loaves of bread to his brothers 
in the Hebrew army, he found the host 
of Israel trembling at the boastful chal- 
lenge of Goliath of Gath. Having ob- 
tained permission to meet the monster in 
mortal combat, he threw off the armour 
of Saul, in which faith could not freely 
move, and taking with him five smooth 
stones out of the brook and his sling in 
his hand, he went forth without the 
slightest trepidation. Saul and his sol- 
diers thought only of Goliath, and were 
afraid, but David thought only of Jeho- 
vah, and hence could calmly reply to his 
mail-clad foe, " I come to thee in the name 
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the 
armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied ; "^ 
and the next instant a stone from his 
sling was buried in the forehead of the 

^ 2 Kinors vi. 16. ^ 1 Sam. xvii. 45. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 403 

uncircumcised Philistine, and "he fell 
upon his face to the earth." 

Whenever Satan can divert our minds 
from the Lord to ourselves or to our cir- 
cumstances, we are sure to lose heart and 
hope, and our prayers will be wanting in 
the essential elements of faith and fervour. 
Look, for example, at Moses, w^ho " was 
very meek, above all the men which were 
upon the face of the earth," ^ and see 
how his meekness became weakness, and 
how his fortitude gave way to fear, and 
how he yielded to discouragement, de- 
spondency, and despair the moment he 
took his eyes from the Lord to view him- 
self and his difficulties. " I am not able," 
he cried, " to bear all this people alone, 
because it is too heavy for me. [The 
Lord had not asked him to do it.] And 
if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray 
thee, out of hand, if I have found favour 
in thy sight; and let me not see my 
wretchedness."^ Look at Job, of whom 

^ Num. xii. 3. 2 Num. xi. 14, 15. 



404 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the Lord said unto Satan, "Hast thou 
considered my servant Job, that there is 
none like him in the earth, a perfect and 
an upright man, one that feareth God, 
and escheweth evil ? "^ " After this open- 
ed Job his mouth, and cursed his day. 
And Job spake, and said. Let the day 
perish wherein I was born, and the 
night in which it was said. There is a 
man child conceived. Let that day be 
darkness; let not God regard it from 
above, neither let the light shine upon 
it."^ Look at Elijah, who, as Moses was 
the meekest man and Job the most pa- 
tient, may be called the bravest man on 
the earth, and yet, terrified at the threat 
of a woman whose powerful husband he 
had withstood to the face and humbled 
into the dust, " he arose, and went for his 
life, and came to Beer-sheba, which be- 
longeth to Judah, and left his servant 
there. But he himself went a day's jour- 
ney into the wilderness, and came and 

1 Jobi. 8. 'Joh.inA-A. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 405 

sat down under a juniper tree : and lie 
requested for himself that he might die ; 
and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, 
take away my life ; for I am not better 
than my fathers."^ Look at Jeremiah, 
who was sanctified before he came out of 
the womb and ordained to be a prophet 
unto the nations, and yet, after all his 
experience of the goodness of God, he 
bitterly exclaimed, " Cursed be the day 
wherein I was born : let not the day 
wherein my mother bare me be blessed. 
Cursed be the man who brought tidings 
to my father, saying, A man child is born 
unto thee ; making him very glad. And 
let that man be as the cities which the 
LoED overthrew, and rej)ented not : and 
let him hear the cry in the morning, and 
the shouting at noontide ; because he slew 
me not from the womb ; or that my mother 
might have been my grave, and her womb 
to be always great with me. Wherefore 
came I forth out of the womb to see 

' 1 Killers xix. 3, 4. 



406 THE WAY MADE PLAIN, 

labour and sorrow, that my days should 
be consumed with shame ?"^ 

All this shows that Moses was not 
meek, and that Job was not patient, and 
that Elijah was not brave, and that Jere- 
miah was not submissive, except as their 
thoughts rested on the Lord. The mo- 
ment their minds were occupied with 
themselves or with their circumstances, 
the first became irritable, and the second 
gave way to self-righteous complaints, 
and the third was panic-stricken, and the 
fourth fell into the depths of despair. 
Thus do the distinguished men whose 
names have been given furnish a striking 
illustration, not only of the truth pre- 
viously stated, that the " flesh " in a be- 
liever is no better than the "flesh" in 
an unbeliever, but of the importance of 
keeping the eye steadily fixed on the 
Ix)rd if we would retain perfect compo- 
sure of spirit amid our sharpest trials. 
Contrast their hasty and intemperate lan- 

^ Jer. XX. M-18. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LOBD. 407 

guage with the calm and joyful words 
of the Son of man at a period in His 
earthly ministry darker than any known 
to the saints who had longed for His ap- 
pearing. The generation that heard His 
tender messages of love heaped cruel 
slanders upon Him, saying, " Behold a 
man gluttonous, and a winebibber." 
Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, 
that had listened to His marvellous dis- 
courses and witnessed His mighty works, 
rejected with contempt His gentle en- 
treaties and repelled with anger His 
solemn admonitions. He stood alone in 
the world He came to save, but " at that 
time Jesus answered and said, I thank 
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and 
earth. . . . Even so. Father ; for so it 
seemed good in thy sight," ^ and then im- 
mediately follow^ed the sw^eetest invitation 
ever addressed to the weary and sorrow- 
ful : " Come unto me, all ye that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you 

1 Matt, xi, 25, 26. 



408 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

rest."^ Blessed example ! He kept His 
gaze constantly directed to His Father, 
and therefore nothing could disturb His 
peace or arrest the stream of grace that 
flowed from His loving heart. 

We see, then, that we can never know 
in our own experience the riches of the 
Lord unto all that call upon Him unless 
our souls have formed the habit, so to 
speak,- of looking to Him continually. 
There are many who pray " by fits and 
starts," now wrapped up in worldliness, 
and anon at a season of special religious 
interest, or under the pressure of some 
personal trouble, bethinking them of the 
God whom they have long neglected, 
and then wondering that they do not re- 
ceive an immediate answer to their sup- 
plications. The Holy Ghost says, " But 
let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. 
For he that wavereth is like a wave of the 
sea driven with the wind and tossed. 
For let not that man think that he shall 

1 Matt. xi. 28. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 409 

receive anything of the Lord."^ The 
fearfully common sin, even among pro- 
fessed Christians, of making the glorious 
God a convenience or necessity in times 
of need, when ordinarily the mind is 
carried like a wind-driven wave hither 
and thither across the sea of life, may 
account for the number of prayers that 
are oJtfered in vain. It is the privilege 
of every child of God to abide in the 
Saviour ; to walk in the light as He is 
in the light ; to have fellowship with the 
Father and with His Son Jesus Christ ; 
and to maintain a communion with the 
Holy Spirit so intimate and so endearing 
that prayer will become as natural as 
breathing, and almost as constant.. " Men 
ought always to pray, and not to faint." ^ 
"Pray without ceasing.'^ ^ "Praying 
always with all prayer and supplication 
in the Spirit."^ "In every thing by 
prayer and suj)plication with thanks- 

^ James i. 6, 7. "^ Luke xviii. 1. 

•^ 1 TJiess. V. 17. * Eph. vi. 18. 

35 



410 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

giving let your requests be made known 
unto God/'' 

A Christian servant-girl overheard a 
number of ministers discussing the text, 
" Pray without ceasing/' and found that 
at length they appointed one of their 
number to prepare an essay upon the 
subject to be read at their next meeting. 
She modestly expressed surprise to a fel- 
low-servant that they should take so 
much time about a passage of Scripture 
so plain and simple ; and her remark 
having reached the ears of one of the 
ministers, he asked her why she thought 
it easy to understand the text. She re- 
plied with humility that it seemed to her 
believers were compelled to pray without 
ceasing, for everything they did remind- 
ed them of the Saviour and salvation. 
'^When, for example," she went on to 
say, " I open my eyes in the morning, I 
praise God who hath shined into my 
heart to give me the light of the know- 

1 Phil. iv. 6. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 411 

ledge of His glory in the face of Jesus 
Christ. When I dress, I bless Him for 
having clothed me in the spotless robe of 
His dear Son's righteousness. When I 
wash my face, I thank Him for the pre- 
cious blood that cleanseth from all sin. 
When I kindle the fire, I think of the 
cloven tongues like as of fire, and the 
Holy Ghost who came down on the day 
of Pentecost to dwell with the disciples 
of Jesus for ever. When I sweep the 
room, I ask that the Holy Spirit may re- 
move from me all defilement, and keep 
me clean through the word. When I 
eat my breakfast, I turn my mind to the 
Bread of heaven that daily nourishes my 
soul ; and thus in all my little duties 
there is something that brings Christ be- 
fore me and causes me to pray without 
ceasing." 

If there were more Christians living, 
like the poor girl, in close and constant 
communion with Jesus, there would be 
fewer to exclahn, " My leanness, my lean- 



412 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

ness, woe unto me!"^ The trouble with 
too many of us is that we have learned 
to " say our prayers/' as it is significantly 
called, and to be contented with a parrot- 
like repetition of words, without under- 
standing or feeling their real import. 
Hence the formality and feebleness of 
our su23plications until the Holy Spirit 
leads us back into real fellowship with 
God, when prayer becomes the delight 
of the soul and establishes it in a posture 
of unceasing worship before the throne. 
Then we can pray continually, even in 
the midst of our ordinary pursuits, in 
walking the streets, in turning the leaves 
of a book, in the pauses of a conversation. 
Then we can know how it was Nehemiah 
found time to pray when the king asked 
him a question, and when it was necessary 
that he should immediately answer. He 
was the cup-bearer of Artaxerxes, and as 
he took up the wine to give it unto the 
monarch on a certain occasion, the latter 

^ Isa. xxiv. 10. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 413 

noticed the sad expression of his face, 
and said to him, "Why is thy counte- 
nance sad ?" It would not do to be sor- 
rowful in the presence of royalty, and 
he was forced to confess that he mourned 
because, as he writes, " The city, the place 
of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, 
and the gates thereof are consumed with 
fire. Then the king said unto me, For 
what dost thou make request? So I 
prayed to the God of heaven ; and I said 
unto the king, If it please the king, and 
if thy servant have found favour in thy 
sight, that thou wouldest send me unto 
Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sep- 
ulchres, that I may build it."^ 

He certainly did not go aside to pray, 
and he certainly had very little time to 
call upon the Lord, for the haughty Per- 
sian despot would not brook delay in re- 
sponse to a question ; and yet between the 
question and the reply which promj3tly 
followed the Hebrew captive prayed to 

1 Neh. ii. 2-5. 

35 * 



414 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

the God of heaven. He offered what is 
termed ejaculatory prayer, and as the 
word ejaculatory comes from a Latin 
word signif}dng a dart or javelin, his 
prayer darted up instantly to the throne 
of Jehovah, and as instantly gained the 
blessing he sought. So when our souls 
are in habitual communion with God we 
can flash forth our petitions, as it were, 
wherever w^e may be, and they are borne 
faster than by electric wires to the loving 
heart of the Saviour who said, " If ye 
abide in me, and my words abide in you, 
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be 
done unto you."^ 

But it is important in this connection 
for the believer to inquire what motive 
leads him to pray or what object he 
hopes to attain. The Holy Ghost di- 
rected the apostle to write, " Ye ask, and 
receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye 
may consume it upon your lusts" [or de- 
sires].'^ There is reason to fear that 

^ John XV. 7. ^ James iv. 3. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 415 

through the deceitfuhiess of the old na- 
ture many Christians often pray merely 
that their wishes may be gratified and 
their comfort promoted, without a be- 
coming submission to the will of God, 
and without a proper regard for His 
glory. I do not say that it is wrong, 
when under the burden of heavy afflic- 
tion, to exclaim with the Master in Geth- 
semane, " O my Father, if it be possible, 
let this cup pass from me ; " but surely it 
is right to add with the Master, " Never- 
theless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."^ 
Still, let us not be too much troubled 
about our motive in praying when there 
is a sincere desire to honour God ; be- 
cause we have the sweet assurance in His 
word that " like as a father pitieth his 
children, so the Lord j)itieth them that 
fear him. For he knoweth our frame ; 
he remembereth that we are dust."^ I 
only desire to put you on your guard 
"against the wiles of the devil," ^ and 

1 Matt. xxvi. 39. ^ pg^ ciii. 13, 14. ^ Eph. vi. 11. 



416 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

then to encourage you to continue in 
prayer with the confident expectation 
that it will be answered, even though 
you may not live to see the evidence of 
it in this world. No doubt one of the 
most delightful surprises in store for us 
in heaven will be the glorious demon- 
stration of the truth that "praying 
breath was never spent in vain.'' 

I have the authority of a devoted and 
well-known minister and author for the 
following : A Christian father and mother 
had a son whom they sought to bring up 
" in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord/'^ and for whom they made contin- 
ual supplication at the throne of grace. As 
he advanced, however, in years, he became 
more and more profligate, until he com- 
pleted his disgrace and w^ell nigh broke 
the hearts of his parents by running away 
from home and going to sea as a com- 
mon sailor. On his first voyage he was 
standing upon the bulwarks of the shij), 

1 Eph. vi. 4. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 417 

uttering the most horrible blasphemies, 
when by a lurch of the vessel he was 
tossed into the waves. Rescued with dif- 
ficulty, he was brought back apparently 
lifeless, and every one around his pros- 
trate body believed that he was dead, ex- 
cept the surgeon, who was moved by some 
unaccountable impulse to persevere in 
efforts to resuscitate him, although all 
hope seemed to be gone. His persistent 
purpose was at length rewarded by seeing 
a faint spark of life, which he carefully 
nourished, and at length the young man, 
opening his eyes, slowly and deliberately 
said, " Jesus Christ has saved my soul." 
After he had fully recovered the power 
of speech, he stated that as he fell into 
the great ocean he felt that he was lost 
for ever, and his multiplied sins came 
trooping about him like demons to drag 
him down into hell ; but suddenly a text 
which his father had taught him in his 
childhood came to his remembrance : 
" This is a faithful saying, and worthy of 

2 B 



418 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners ; of whom 
I am chief ;"^ and while sinking, as he 
thought, into perdition, he cast himself 
upon a gracious Redeemer. His subse- 
quent life proved that he was really born 
again in that dreadful moment when the 
sea closed over his head, for he returned 
home to become a faithful and useful 
minister of the gospel, although his sal- 
vation was not more complete after years 
of service in the cause of the Saviour 
than it was the instant he believed on 
Him who came to save the chief of sin- 
ners. 

If he had perished in the water, doubt- 
less his parents would have gone down to 
the grave fearing that he had made ship- 
wreck of his soul ; and yet at the second 
coming of Jesus they would have been 
caught up with him in the clouds to meet 
the Lord in the air. " In the morning 
sow thy seed, and in the evening with- 

1 1 Tim. i. 15. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 419 

hold not thine hand ; for thou knowest 
not whether shall prosper, either this or 
that, or whether they both shall be alike 
good."^ Remember for your comfort 
that in prayer you are not coming to an 
unjust Judge or an unfeeling Governor, 
from whose unwilling hand a favour has 
to be wrung by the force of importunity, 
but you are approaching a kind and lov- 
ing Father, who is far more willing to 
bestow upon you things that are for your 
good than you are to confer a pleasure 
upon your child or the dearest friend 
you have on earth. It dishonours and 
grieves Him when His peo23le act as did 
the priests of Baal to whom Elijah said, 
" Cry aloud : for he is a god ; either he 
is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a 
journey, or perad venture he sleepeth, and 
must be awaked.''^ Why not believe 
these precious promises ? " He that keep- 
eth thee will not slumber."^ ^'The eyes 
of the Lord are upon the righteous [that 

^ Eccles. xi. 6. ^ 1 Kings xviii. 27, ^ Ps. cxxi. 3. 



420 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

is, those who are righteous by faith in 
Christ], and his ears are open unto their 
cry."^ a jj^ hath said, I will never leave 
thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may 
boldly say. The Lord is my helper."^ 

If, therefore, you are troubled in your 
prayers by the consciousness of your own 
sinfulness as well as by the cares and sor- 
rows arising from other sources, you know 
the remedy. Go to Him who never 
slumbers, whose ear is always open to 
your cry, and who is a mighty helper, 
and frankly confess your iniquities, for 
" if we confess our sins, he is faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness."^ This lan- 
guage is addressed only to believers in 
Christ, and it points out the way of re- 
lief from the torturing recollection of the 
errors and evils into which we have been 
betrayed. Our relationship to God as 
His dear children can never be destroyed, 
blessed be His name ! but our communion 

^ Ps. xxxiv. 15. 2 Heb. xiii. 5, 6. ^1 John i. 9. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 421 

with Him may often be disturbed, and 
the method which He reveals to restore 
that communion is an honest and sincere 
confession of our faults. He has said, 
" If we confess our sins he is faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins," and this is 
enough. Suppose you have been griev- 
ously wronged by one with whom you had 
lived for years in confidential and pleas- 
ant intercourse. Being convinced of the 
injustice he has done you, he comes at 
length with confession upon his lips ask- 
ing to be forgiven. You assure him that 
he is fully forgiven, and that your rela- 
tions to each other shall be in the future 
as they have been in the past. He goes 
away, but returns the next day with a 
sad countenance and sorrowful heart, 
saying, " Please forgive me." You reply 
that he is already forgiven, and you now 
repeat the assurance in all sincerity and 
love, but he returns the next day, and 
the next, and the next, with the same 
cry, " Please forgive me." You at once 

36 



422 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

perceive tliat his ungenerous suspicion 
and unbelief would be a more cruel insult 
than his original offence, for his conduct 
would plainly declare that he looked upon 
you as a liar. 

God has solemnly declared that ^^if 
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just 
to forgive our sins/' and " he that believ- 
eth not God hath made him a liar."^ 
He uses the words faithful and just rather 
than the words gracious and merciful, 
because He is addressing those who are 
already accepted in the Beloved, of whom 
the Saviour says, " He that is washed 
needeth not save to wash his feet, but 
is clean every whit.'^^ Here we have 
washed and wash^ but in the original they 
are entirely different words. The former 
was employed by the Greeks to imply 
the bathing of the entire person, but the 
latter denoted the washing of a part of 
the person, as the hands, the face, or the 
feet. Among the ancients sandals were 

1 1 John V. 10. 2 jo]^j^ xiii. 10. 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 423 

worn instead of shoes, and hence that 
portion of the feet which was exposed 
would soon become defiled with the dust 
of the earth. If a man had bathed be- 
fore going to an entertainment, he would 
not need to bathe again, but his feet 
being washed from the defilement con- 
tracted by the way, he would be " clean 
every whit." So he who believes upon 
the sure testimony of God's word that the 
blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth him from 
all sin is bathed as to his entire person, 
and he needeth not to go back to that 
blood as if it had lost its efficacy ; and 
yet he cannot travel far in this sinful 
world without getting his feet, his w^alk, 
his ways, polluted by coming into con- 
tact with that which is evil. Let him, 
then, judge himself in the light of the 
inspired word, and discovering thus what 
is wrong about him, let him frankly con- 
fess his sins, and arise from the confession 
knowing that he is " clean every whit." 
It only remains to say a word about 



424 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

wandering thoughts in prayer, of which 
every Christian, perhaps, has reason to 
complain. It may be well that we are 
troubled in this way, for he who is ac- 
quainted with his own heart knows his 
proneness to trust in legalism or in self- 
righteousness, in place of resting calmly 
on the finished work of Christ. If we 
could pray with the fervency and fluency 
we desire, fixing our minds intently on 
the majestic Being whom we address, it 
is probable that we would soon be pufied 
up with a high conceit of our attain- 
ments, and grieve the Spirit of God 
whereby we are sealed unto the day of 
redemption. Still, it is a sore evil to ap- 
proach God as supplicants and worship- 
pers while thinking of other objects ; and 
it may be of service to suggest that as far 
as possible you should pray aloud even 
in your private devotions, and especially 
that you pray frequently, after reminding 
yourself that you are about to enter into 
the presence of the great King. A hymn 



THE BELIEVER CALLING ON THE LORD. 425 

on this subject by Faber has brought 
comfort to many souls ; and without 
adding anything of my own, which the 
limits of the present cha23ter forbid, I 
will here transcribe it for the benefit of 
the reader. 

" Ah ! dearest Lord, I cannot pray, 
My fancy is not free ; 
Unmannerly distractions come. 
And force my thoughts from Thee. 

" The world that looks so dull all day 
Glows bright on me at prayer, 
And plans that ask no thought but then, 
Wake up and meet me there. 

" All nature one full fountain seems 
Of dreamy sight and sound, 
Which, when I kneel, breaks up its deeds, 
And makes a deluge round. 

*' Old voices murmur in my ear. 
New hopes start into life. 
And past and future gayly blend 
In one bewitching strife. 

*' My very flesh has restless fits ; 
My changeful limbs conspire 
W^ith all these phantoms of the mind 
My inner self to tire. 



426 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

" I cannot pray ; yet, Lord, Thou know'st 
The pain it is to me 
To have my vainly struggling thoughts 
Thus turn away from Thee. 

" Had I, dear Lord, no pleasure found 
But in the thought of Thee, 
Prayer would have come unsought, and been 
A truer liberty. 

" Yet Thou art oft most present, Lord, 
In weak, distracted prayer ; 
A sinner out of heart with self 
Most often finds Thee there. 

" And prayer that humbles sets the soul 
From all illusions free, 
And teaches it how utterly. 
Dear Lord, it hangs on Thee. 

" Ah, Jesus, why should I complain, 
And why fear aught but sin ? 
Distractions are but outward things ; 
Thy peace dwells far within. 

" These surface-troubles come and go 
Like rufflings of the sea ; 
The deeper depth is out of reach 
To all, my God, but Thee.'' 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall 
be saved."— Romans x. 13. 

^jfJlEXT to the inquiry, "What must 




I do to be saved ?"^ j)^^^^P^ ^^^ 
(v^o, most important question is, " How 

may I know I am saved?" But 
important as is this question, there are 
probably in the Christian Church very 
many who have never seriously pon- 
dered it, and there are certainly very 
many more who are wholly unable to 
meet it with an intelligent and satisfactory 
answer. Such indifference to the interests 
of the soul on the part of unbelievers 
does not surprise us, for they are " dead 
in trespasses and sins;"^ but surely it 

1 Acts xvi. 30. 2 Epi^ ii 2 

427 



428 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

should cause profound astonisliment to 
find that there are multitudes claiming 
to be " the children of God by faith in 
Christ Jesus" ^ who are contented to travel 
on their way to eternity without knowing 
whither they are journeying. What 
would you think of a man hurrying 
along a highway if he were to inform 
you that he was escaping from a city 
doomed to destruction, and on being 
asked where he was going he should 
quietly reply, " I do not know ; some- 
times I am not without hope that I am 
going to a place of safety, but generally 
I have too much reason to fear that the 
road I am pursuing leads to fearful suf- 
fering and a terrible death ; and really, I 
can tell you nothing about it"? You 
would justly suspect the sincerity or the 
sanity of such a man, and yet his sup- 
posed reply indicates precisely the state 
of thousands who profess to believe that 
"the wrath of God is revealed from 

1 Gal. iii. 26. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 429 

heaven against all ungodliness and un- 
righteousness of men/'^ 

They say they have listened to the 
voice of love warning us 'Ho flee from 
the wrath to come/'^ but whether the road 
they have taken will conduct them to the 
unutterable horrors of that wrath, or to 
the ineffable glories of heaven, they con- 
fess is a matter of doubt, or at best of 
vague conjecture. It is the height of 
presumption, they think, for one who is 
perplexed with the cares and pressed by 
the engagements of worldly business to 
be confident of salvation, and they imagine 
that the assurance of forgiveness can be 
attained only by a privileged number 
who devote their undivided time to re- 
ligious meditation and study and prayer. 
Hence, in answer to the question, " How 
may I know that I am saved ?" they will 
either remain silent or reply that we can 
never know it unless we are conscious of 
superior holinesS, and of fervent love for 

^ Rom. i. 18. ^ Luke iii. 7. 



430 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

God, and of unceasing fidelity in His 
service. In other words, they make the 
reply to the question depend upon some- 
thing done by us, instead of the work 
done for us by the Saviour ; whereas the 
reply contained in the blessed gospel is 
very simple, for it is written, " Whosoever 
shall call upon the name of the Lord 
shall be saved." 

The word " Lord " here refers, as stated 
in the previous chapter, to Jesus Christ, 
who "' died for our sins according to the 
scriptures," and ^' rose again the third 
day according to the scriptures."^ A 
few years after His ascension His follow- 
ers began to be termed Christians, and 
they are described by an inspired apos- 
tle as " all that in every place call upon 
the name of Jesus Christ our Lord."^ To 
call upon the name of the Lord is a He- 
brew form of speech denoting the Lord 
Himself, and it signifies, therefore, to call 
upon Christ, who, " when fie had by him- 

1 1 Cor. XV. 3, 4. ^1 Cor. i. 2. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 431 

self purged our sins, sat down on the 
right hand of the Majesty on high."^ 
It is obvious, however, that we cannot 
truly call upon Him unless we believe 
in Him ; but if we sincerely believe in 
Him as our Saviour, we may knoiv upon 
the best evidence possible — that is, upon 
His own infinitely trustworthy testimony 
— that heaven is certain, because He has 
said, "Whosoever shall call upon the 
name of the Lord shall be saved." 

All the knowledge we possess is derived 
from consciousness, or from the evidence 
of our senses, or from testimony; and 
the knowledge wx gain from testimony 
may be entitled to as much credit as that 
which we obtain from consciousness or 
the evidence of our senses. We are con- 
scious, for example, of certain thoughts 
and emotions, and we say without hesi- 
tation we know they really came into our 
minds and hearts. Or we see a great 
crowd assembled, and say we know that 

1 Heb. i. 3. 



432 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

many persons have met together. Or we 
hear an entrancing melody, and say we 
hnow charming sounds are uttered. Or 
we taste honey, and say we hnow it is 
sweet. Or we lay hold of an object, and 
say we hnow we touch it. But surely we 
may say with equal confidence we hnow 
that George Washington, and Napoleon 
Bonaparte, and Oliver Cromwell, and 
Julius Caesar lived, although we are not 
conscious of their existence, nor have we 
seen them. He who would gravely ex- 
press a doubt whether these men actually 
lived, because the fact has not been re- 
vealed to him by his consciousness or the 
evidence of his senses, would be held in 
merited contempt for his silly eccentricity, 
and no one could be induced to waste an 
argument upon his stupid mind. The 
testimony that proves their existence is 
not less certain and conclusive than that 
of which we are conscious, or which we 
have seen with our eyes and heard with 
our ears. Indeed, it is more certain and 



ASSUKANCE OF FAITH. 433 

conclusive ; for while it is possible to be- 
lieve that consciousness and our senses 
may sometimes deceive us, it is not jDOSsi- 
ble to believe that Washington and Na- 
poleon never had any existence whatever 
except in the imagination of fictitious 
writers. We know that they lived. We 
know that one was President of the 
United States and that the other was 
Emperor of France. We knoiv that one 
died and was buried at Mount Vernon, 
and that the other died and was buried 
on the island of Saint Helena ; and so of 
any other fact in their history of which 
we have clear and unequivocal testimony. 
Suppose a jury of twelve intelligent, 
upright citizens were summoned to try a 
man indicted for homicide. If two wit- 
nesses, respected by the entire commuity 
for their strict truthfulness, should come 
into court and solemnly swear that they 
saw the prisoner at the bar strike the 
fatal blow which deprived his victim of 
life, would the jury bring in a verdict of 

37 2C 



434 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

^' not guilty" on the ground that they did 
not and could not know that the defend- 
ant had committed the crime with which 
he was charged? Suppose that, in ad- 
dition to the tAvo witnesses, ten, twenty, 
fifty, or one hundred men of the highest 
character for veracity should swear the 
same thing, without the slightest rebut- 
ting evidence, would the jury still say to 
the judge. We cannot knoio that the pris- 
oner is guilty ? Surely not. Their action 
in the case would say in effect. We know 
that he is guilty ; and although we would 
have gladly given him the benefit of a 
doubt if any had existed, and although 
we shrink from the dread responsibility 
of consigning a fellow-creature to an ig- 
nominious death, we are bound to render 
a verdict according to the law and evi- 
dence, and therefore hand him over to 
the executioner. Their knowledge would 
not be derived either from consciousness 
or their own senses, but nevertheless 
they could not be more positive as to the 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 435 

fact if they had personally witnessed the 
murderous act. 

Most of the knowledge we possess is 
derived from testimony, but still it is 
knowledge, and not conjecture, nor guess- 
ing, nor supposition, nor surmise. All 
our knowledge of past events in the his- 
tory of the world is due entirely to testi- 
mony ; all our knowledge of present 
events that are occurring on the face of 
the earth beyond the narrow range of our 
own observation is due entirely to testi- 
mony ; all our knowledge of the dis- 
coveries made in various departments of 
science as the result of patient thought 
and careful investigation is due, in most 
instances, entirely to testimony ; and yet 
we do not hesitate to rely upon it with 
the utmost confidence. We are so con- 
stituted that we are compelled to believe 
the testimony of competent witnesses — 
that is, witnesses who know whereof they 
affirm, and w^hose word is worthy of 
credit. If a thousand such witnesses 



436 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

should declare that they had visited some 
place of which we had never heard be- 
fore, we could no more doubt their state- 
ment than we could call in question the 
evidence of our sight. Nay, if one man 
of spotless reputation communicates to us 
a fact that fell under his personal obser- 
vation, we are prepared to assert that we 
know it to be true simj)ly and singly 
upon our faith in his veracity. Every 
day we are gaining knowledge in this 
manner from intercourse with friends ; 
and if, on repeating information thus ob- 
tained, it should be disputed, we would 
regard the denial as an insult to ourselves 
or to those from whom we received the 
statement. Visiting a member of the 
church recently who is rapidly approach- 
ing the eternal world, she told me that 
her distressing cough had deprived her 
of sleep during the previous night, and 
that she was suffering greatly. My reply 
was, " Cheer up ! for you will soon be where 
^ there shall be no more death, neither 



ASSUKANCE OF FAITH. 437 

sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be 
any more j)ain.' "^ " Oh," she exclaimed, 
with touching anxiety depicted on her 
face, " if I only knew that ! How can I 
know it ?" " Suppose," I answered, " when 
I leave your house, I meet an acquaint- 
ance who asks, ' How is Mrs. S to- 
day V I tell her that you coughed nearly 
all night and feel very badly. She then 
says, ' How can I know that V What 
should I reply ?" " You would inform 
her," she answered, " that I told you." 
" Precisely so, and God tells you in His 
word that if you believe on His dear 
Son you shall certainly be saved. If I 
can believe you without a moment's hesi- 
tation, will you not believe the blessed 
God ?" 

My object in these arguments and il- 
lustrations is to show that we may know 
that of which we have no evidence either 
from consciousness or from our own 
senses, merely upon credible testimony. 

^ Rev. xxi. 4. 

37* 



438 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

It is in this way the believer knows he is 
saved. He knows it upon the sure testi- 
mony of God, who can neither deceive 
nor be deceived, and who, " willing more 
abundantly to show unto the heirs of 
promise the immutability of his counsel, 
confirmed it by an oath : that by two im- 
mutable things, in which it w^as impossi- 
ble for God to lie, we might have a strong 
consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay 
hold upon the hope set before us : which 
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, 
both sure and steadfast." ^ The testimony 
of the eternal Jehovah is more w^orthy 
of credit than the testimony of the entire 
human race of all generations combined, 
and He has given both His promise and 
HLs oath to save with an everlasting sal- 
vation every soul that trusts in Jesus 
Christ. " How, then, does the believer 
k7iow that he is saved?" He knows it 
because God has said and sw^orn that we 
shall come off* " more than conquerors 

1 Heb. vi. 17-19. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 439 

through him that loved us."^ ^' For 
when God made promise to Abraham, 
because he could swear by no greater, he 
sware by himself;"^ and — glory to His 
name ! — He still lives to swear by Himself, 
" to the end the promise might be sure to 
all the seed ; not to that only which is 
of the law, but to that also which is of 
the faith of Abraham ; who is the father 
of us all."^ Observe, the promise might 
be sure to all the seed. 

Ponder a few of the words of Jesus, 
and then decide whether a believer may 
know upon such testimony that he is 
saved beyond the shadow of a doubt. 
"This is the Father's will which hath 
sent me, that of all which he hath given 
me I should lose nothing, but should 
raise it up again at the last day. And 
this is the will of him that sent me, that 
every one which seeth the Son, and be- 
lieveth on him, may have everlasting 
life : and I will raise him up at the last 

1 Kom. viii. 37. ^ n^^^^ ^^ 13^ 3 n^^^^ ly^ iq^ 



440 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

day."^ "My sheep hear my voice, and 
I know them, and they follow^ me : and 
I give unto them eternal life ; and they 
shall never perish, neither shall any 
pluck them out of my hand. My Father, 
which gave them me, is greater than all ; 
and no one is able to pluck them out of 
my Father's hand. I and my Father 
are one."^ "He that believeth on the 
Son hath everlasting life^'^ — not life for 
a few weeks, or months, or years — not 
life to be bestowed and taken away, to be 
gained and lost — but everlasting life, and 
he has it now and has it for ever. 
" Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that 
heareth my word, and believeth on him 
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and 
shall not come into condemnation [judg- 
ment] ; but is passed from death unto 
life."^ "Because I live, ye shall live 
also."^ "Father, I will that they also, 
whom thou hast given me, be with me 

1 John vi. 39, 40. ^ John x. 27-30. ^ John iii. 36. 
* John V. 24. ^ Jolin xiv. 19. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 441 

where I am ; that they may behold my 
glory, which thou hast given me : for 
thou lovedst me before the foundation of 
the world."' 

Do you still ask how you may hnow 
that you are saved? I still reply, By 
believing the sure testimony of God's 
word. You know you were a con- 
demned and ruined sinner by believing 
that word ; you know Christ came to die 
for a lost world by believing that word ; 
and you may know you are saved, if you 
trust in Jesus Christ, by believing the 
same word. Let me ask a few plain 
questions that may present this important 
subject in a clearer light to your mind. 
How do you know that the law of God 
has pronounced a curse against every one 
who continues not in the strict perform- 
ance of all the Divine commandments in 
all their extent, reaching to the most 
secret emotions of the soul ? You know 
it only by believing His word. How do 

' John xvii. 24. 



442 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

YOU know that He who was in the form 
of God, and thought it not robbery to be 
equal with God, emptied Himself of His 
Yisible glory, and was born of the Virgin 
Mary, and performed many wonderful 
miracles, and preached many sublime 
and sweet truths, and died upon the cross, 
and rose from the tomb, and ascended up 
to heaven? You know it only by be- 
lieving His word. How do you know 
that He is to come again to judge the 
quick and the dead at His appearing and 
kingdom? You know it only by be- 
lieving His word. How do you know 
that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son 
cleanseth us from all sin ? You know it 
only by believing His word. How, then, 
do you know that, not relying upon your- 
self, nor upon forms and ceremonies, but 
upon Christ alone, you shall certainly be 
saved? Obviously, in the same way — 
only by believing His word. 

You cannot feel that the Saviour was 
born in Bethlehem of Judea, and that He 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 443 

suffered on Calvary, for this occurred 
more than eighteen hundred years ago ; 
but you can know it upon the unim- 
peachable testimony of God. And so 
you are not called to feel that you can be 
saved in order to obtain assurance of sal- 
vation, but to know it upon the sworn 
testimony of God revealed in His word ; 
or, to put it in another shape, you can- 
not know that you are saved because you 
feel it, but you will feel it because you 
know it. If you hear good news, you do 
not first feel that it is true, and then be- 
lieve it, but you first believe it, and then 
feel hapjDy. If you are anxious to obtain 
a favour from a friend who promises to 
grant your request, you do not first feel 
that he will do it, and then believe him, 
but you first believe him, and then feel 
glad and grateful. If you have lost your 
sight, and a successful operation has been 
performed to remove the obstruction from 
your vision, you do not turn your atten- 
tion within to examine the optic nerve, 



444 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

but you open your eyes to look without, 
and thus discover that you can see. If 
you have been deaf, and something is 
done to relieve you of the affliction, you 
do not begin to study the structure of 
the tympanum or ear-drum, but hearken 
to the sounds that are going around you, 
and thus discover that you can hear. In 
like manner, if you would know that you 
are saved, you must fix your gaze upon 
Christ, and listen to His precious declara- 
tions in the gospel, instead of seeking 
for comfort amid the darkness and dis- 
ease that not only belong by nature to 
the " old man,'' but will continue to cling 
to it until it is laid down at the grave, or 
left behind at the second coming of the 
Lord. The Westminster Confession of 
Faith well says, " This corruption of na- 
ture, during this life, doth remain in 
those that are regenerated ; and although 
it be through Christ pardoned and mor- 
tified, yet both itself and all the motions 
thereof are truly and properly sin." 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 445 

It is my earnest desire and eflfort to 
turn your thoughts entirely away from 
yourself to the Saviour, for it is the most 
melancholy business that can engage even 
a redeemed sinner to be probing into his 
own soul to find some assurance that he 
is saved. You can never find it there, 
but only in the word ; and, thank God ! 
having once seen it in the word, you can 
see it every day and every hour, and as 
often as you read and believe what Jesus 
says. Nor is this assurance the privilege 
exclusively of ministers or of a favoured 
few who have made higher attainments 
in holiness than the common crowd can 
ever hope to reach, but it is the privi- 
lege of every one without exception wdio 
believes the testimony of God's word 
addressed alike to all. The merchant 
plunged in the noisy whirl of trade ; the 
mechanic working at his bench ; the pro- 
fessional man in the wearisome routine 
of his daily duties ; the wife and mother 
harassed with the anxieties and cares of 

38 



446 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

her household ; the child of affliction 
bowed under the burden of a well-nigh 
insupportable sorrow, — may all rejoice in 
this cheering assurance, and know by 
simply and sincerely believing God that 
they are for ever saved. Christ died for 
one as much as another of His people, 
and "he that believeth on him is not 
condemned/'^ no matter what may be his 
circumstances in life. To believe this is 
to know that we are saved. 

Hence, in some of the chief confessions 
and catechisms which express the doc- 
trinal views of Christians, assurance is 
represented as the common experience of 
all who believe in Jesus. Thus in the 
celebrated Heidelberg Catechism, in an- 
swer to Question 21, " What is true faith ?" 
the answer is, " True faith is not only a 
certain knowledge, whereby I hold for 
truth all that God has revealed to us in 
His word, but also an assured confidence, 
which the Holy Ghost works by the 

1 John iii. 18. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 447 

Gospel in my heart ; that not only to 
others, but to me also, remission of sin, 
everlasting righteousness, and salvation, 
are freely given by God, merely of grace, 
only for the sake of Christ's merits." So 
again in the equally celebrated Catechism 
of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, 
in answer to Question 36, " What are the 
benefits which in this life do accompany 
or flow from justification, adoption, and 
sanctification ?" the answ^er is, " The bene- 
fits which in this life [in this life, observe] 
do accompany or flow from justification, 
adoption, and sanctification, are assurance 
of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in 
the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and 
perseverance therein to the end." These 
questions and answers are heard in a 
thousand Sunday-schools every Lord's 
day, but the meaning of the words they 
contain is seldom understood or even con- 
sidered ; for there are very few in our 
time who believe, according to their own 
standards, that true faith is " a certain 



448 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

knowledge" and " an assured confidence/' 
or that the benefits which in this life do 
accompany justification are " assurance of 
God's love/' etc. 

The multitude regard it as impious 
presumption when they hear Christians 
at rare intervals say they know they are 
saved, but they do not regard it as im- 
pious presumption to make God a liar, as 
they do by their doubts and fears ; for 
"he that believeth not God hath made 
him a liar ; because he believeth not the 
record that God gave of his Son." ^ They 
seem to think that it is only a pre-emi- 
nently holy w^alk that can secure assur- 
ance of faith; whereas it is only assur- 
ance of faith that can secure a pre-emi- 
nently holy walk. They seem to think 
that to obtain this priceless boon they 
must struggle hard and long, and refer 
a^ an illustration to Jacob wrestling all 
night with the Lord, whereas a glance 
at the passage in Genesis would show 

1 1 John V. 10. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 449 

tliem that it was the Lord who wrestled 
with Jacob ; just as He is now wrestling 
with their ungenerous and unworthy 
unbelief, seeking to cast it down by the 
precious word of His grace. They seem 
to think that it is a token of becoming 
humility and self-abasement when they 
lament their wretched condition as sin- 
ners, or, at best, indulge a faint hope 
that they will be admitted, after they are 
judged, to " the lowest seat in heaven," 
whereas it is a token of pride and self- 
righteousness that keep them from seeing 
how totally lost they really are, and so 
prevent them from resting at once and 
fully upon the finished work of Christ 
for eternal life. 

They are not "altogether without 
hope," they say ;• but if they believe in 
Christ (and this is a simple matter of 
consciousness) , why do they not say they 
k7iow they are saved according to the 
Scriptures ? A young lady teaching her 
class in Sunday-school found the lesson 

;^.8 * 2 B 



450 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

for a certain day embracing the Saviour's 
declaration, " Yerily, verily, I say unto 
you, He that believeth on me hath ever- 
lasting life."^ A little girl inquired, 
'' Is that true — is it surely true ?" " Oh 
yes!'' replied the teacher, "it is surely 
true, for Christ says so, and whatever He 
says is true." " It must be very nice," 
said the child, " to have everlasting life, 
and to know that whatever comes you 
are saved, and saved even now." "Yes," 
answered the teacher, "it is a great 
blessing indeed." " Then you are saved, 
are you not?" asked the interested 
scholar. "I hope so," was the rej)ly. 
" Hope so !" exclaimed the child ; " why 
I thought you told me just now it was 
sure enough ?" The conversation is said 
to have led the young lady to see her 
folly, and to cast herself with undoubt- 
ing confidence upon Christ for a present, 
complete, and assured salvation. So it 
would be with numbers of professed 

1 John vi. 47. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 451 

Christians who seek to lead souls to 
the Saviour, if they would reflect for a 
moment upon the absurdity of telling 
the inquiring sinner, upon the infinitely 
trustworthy testimony of Jehovah, that 
through faith in Jesus he shall certainly 
be saved, while they themselves, although 
saying they believe, are filled with doubt 
and fear concerning their own state and 
standing before God. 




CHAPTER XX. 

ASSUMANCE OF FAITH. 

'HE objection, however, may be 
here raised that the real point of 
the difficulty is not yet reached. 
It will be admitted, some are 
ready to reply, that the true believer may 
know he is saved, but the question is, 
How can he know he is a true believer ? 
Is he not compelledj in the nature of the 
case, to look at his ow^n heart and life 
before he can be assured of his interest 
in the blood of Christ? As Professor 
Lindsay has put it in his expository 
Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews 
(which are for the most part admirable), 
^^When the question is, What is the 
ground of a sinner's acceptance? the 
answer is, Christ's righteousness received 

452 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 453 

by faith alone. When the question is, 
What is the ground of a true saving 
faith? the answer is, The testimony of 
God applied to the conscience by the 
Holy Ghost. But when the question is, 
Has some particular man, A or B, really 
believed the gospel and obtained pardon? 
it must obviously be something connected 
with the man himself to which you look 
for an answer. Has the gospel produced 
its legitimate influence upon his disposi- 
tions and life? Is he bringing forth 
fruits meet for repentance ? Is he yield- 
ing a diligent and cheerful obedience to 
the commandments of Christ ?" 

To this the troubled Christian might 
fairly respond. What is the legitimate 
influence of the gospel upon my dispo- 
sitions and life, and how far does it 
extend? What are fruits meet for re- 
pentance, and how abundant and con- 
stant must be their growth and manifes- 
tation? What is a diligent and cheerful 
obedience to the commandments of Christ, 



454 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

and where is the standard to determine 
whether the obedience is sufficiently dili- 
gent and cheerful to entitle me to assur- 
ance of salvation? With all deference 
for Dr. Lindsay's ability as a scholar and 
writer, I am bold to say that assurance 
can never, never be obtained in this man- 
ner; for in proportion as a child of God 
is conscientious and painstaking in his 
walk, so is he made aware of the evils of 
his nature and his deficiencies in meeting 
the full measure of his obligations. The 
holiest saints on earth are invariably 
those who most clearly perceive and most 
promptly confess the vileness of their 
hearts and their failures in duty; and 
they would be the first to confess that if 
assurance is derived from anything found 
in them or done by them, it is a privilege 
entirely beyond the reach of their expe- 
rience. 

The fact is, assurance does not depend 
upon our conduct, but our conduct 
greatly depends upon our assurance. Let 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 455 

. no one infer from this that it matters not 
how a Christian lives, for whatever gives 
the slightest encouragement to sin ; what- 
ever leads any to suppose that the least 
iniquity in the soul or life is a little 
thing; whatever tends to dampen the 
ardour of a fervent aspiration to be per- 
fectly conformed to the will of God, — is 
utterly contrary both to the letter and 
the spirit of the Gospel. Its solemn lan- 
guage is, "As he which hath called you 
is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of 
conversation ; because it is written. Be ye 
holy; for I am holy."^ But the calling 
here does not depend upon the holiness, 
although the holiness depends uj)on the 
calling. The divine order is, first faith 
and then works; first grace and then 
government; first privilege and then re- 
sponsibility; first relationship and then 
affection ; first life and then activity ; first 
salvation and then holiness. " Be ye 
therefore followers of God, as dear chil- 

1 1 Pet. i. 15, 16. 



456 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

dren;"^ but mark, as dear children; and 
the exhortation is based upon the fact 
stated in the preceding verse — that " God 
for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."'^ 
So you will find that all the exhortations 
addressed to the disciples of Jesus in the 
New Testament take it for granted that 
faith is already exercised; that grace is 
already received; that privilege is already 
enjoyed; that relationship with God as 
the Father of believers is already estab- 
lished; that life is already bestowed; that 
salvation is already secured. They are 
not asked to pray, and work, and give, 
and be holy, in order to be saved, but 
because they are saved; and salvation is 
not made to hang upon their discernment 
of themselves as true believers, but upon 
their discernment of Christ as the only 
and all-sufiicient Saviour. 

It is nowhere written in the Bible, 
Believe that thou art a believer, and 
thou shalt be saved, but, "Believe on 

1 Eph. V. 1. 2 Eph. iv. 32. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 457 

the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
be saved." ^ It is nowhere said, He that 
believeth himself to be a believer hath 
everlasting life, but, " He that believeth 
on the Son hath everlasting life."^ Do 
you ask, then, how you may know that 
you are a believer? I reply. You can- 
not know it by looking at yourself, but 
only at the Saviour who speaks to you 
in His word. If a friend of undoubted 
veracity were to tell you of something 
that had occurred within his personal 
knowledge, you would not think of your 
own heart and life to find out whether 
you believed him, but only of his un- 
spotted reputation for truthfulness. If a 
common liar were to relate a wonderful 
story as a fact, you would not watch the 
operations of your own mind, and the 
expressions of your own face, to discover 
whether 'you doubted or believed his 
statement, but you would remember his 
bad character, and for this reason dis- 

^ Acts xvi. 31. 2 j(3ijn iii. 36. 

39 



458 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

miss what he has said as unworthy of 
credit. If you were dangerously ill, and 
your physician, who through long years 
of practice had never been known to 
deceive a patient, should at length declare 
that the crisis of the disease had been 
safely passed, that all your symptoms 
were encouraging, and that you were on 
the way to speedy recovery, you would 
not be occupied with thoughts about 
yourself to learn whether you believed 
him, but your attention would be in- 
stantly turned from self to think of his 
skill, his integrity, and his cheering 
words. You would not first feel glad, 
and then believe him, but you would 
first believe him, and then feel glad. 
You would not first look for signs of 
returning health, and then accept his 
declaration as true, but you would first 
accept his declaration as true, 'and then 
look for signs of returning health. You 
would not say, " Doctor, I wish I could 
believe you ; I am trying to believe you ; 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 459 

how can I believe you ? how can I know 
that I believe you?" but immediately 
upon the announcement of the good news 
you would believe liim, and straightway 
rejoice. 

So it was with those who became the 
disciples of Jesus in the earliest and 
best days of the Christian Church. They 
heard the good news of the love of God 
for a lost world, and of the death of 
Christ for sin, and of His resurrection 
for the justification of His people, and 
without any delay they believed, and at 
once were made happy in the assurance 
of salvation. Among them were phy- 
sicians, and lawyers, and merchants, and 
mechanics, and farmers, and priests who 
gave up their office, and women, com- 
posing a great company, having the 
same sinful nature with which we are 
born into the world, and bearing on 
their weary souls the same cares that 
burden us, and knowing " that not many 
wise men after the flesh, not manv 



460 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

mighty, not many noble/' ^ were called to 
help them in the struggle of life. Some 
of them had been fornicators, and idola- 
tors, and adulterers, and effeminate, and 
abusers of themselves with mankind, and 
thieves, and covetous, and drunkards, and 
revilers, and extortioners; and yet it 
could be said to them, ^^But ye are 
washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are 
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
and by the Spirit of our God."^ This 
wondrous change from the deepest deg- 
radation to the highest blessedness was 
brought about by simply believing upon 
the testimony of God that Christ had 
put away their sins ; and there is not the 
slightest evidence that they doubted their 
acceptance, or that they worried them- 
selves in trying to discover whether their 
faith was of the right kind, and whether 
it was sufiiciently strong. They were 
troubled about other questions, which they 
referred to the decision of the inspired 

1 1 Cor. i. 26. 2 I Cqj.^ ^j^ ^^ 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 461 

apostles, but there is no proof that they 
ever asked how they might know they 
were true believers and thus obtain full 
assurance of faith. 

On the other hand, there is abundant 
proof that they were strangers to the fear 
and uncertainty that make uj) the gloomy 
experience of at least nine-tenths of the 
people of God in modern times. Who- 
ever they were, whatever they had been, 
wherever they lived, they had an assur- 
ance of salvation which must have formed 
at once an unfailing fountain of joy to 
their hearts and an effective instrument 
for achieving an easy victory over the 
world. Thus in writing to the Romans 
the apostle says in his salutation, " To all 
that be in Rome, beloved of God, called 
to be saints."^ If they did not know 
that they were beloved of God, called to 
be saints, it is obvious that they could 
not know that the Epistle was intended 
for them. In the same strain he goes on 

1 Rom. i. 7. 
39* 



462 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

to say, "To him that worketh not, but 
belie veth on him that justifieth the mi- 
godly, his faith is counted for righteous- 
ness/'^ "Therefore being justified by 
faith, we have peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ : by whom also 
we have access by faith into this grace 
wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of 
the glory of God."^ "What shall we say 
then? Shall we continue in sin, that 
grace may abound? God forbid. How 
shall we that are dead to sin, live any 
longer therein?^ "Knowing this, that 
our old man is crucified with him, that 
the body of sin might be destroyed, that 
henceforth we should not serve sin."^ 
"There is therefore now no condemna- 
tion to them which are in Christ Jesus." ^ 
"Who is he that condemneth? It is 
Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen 
again, who is even at the right hand of 
God, who also maketh intercession for 

^ Rom. iv. 5. ^ Eom. v. 1, 2. ^ Rom. vi. 1, 2. 
* Rom. vi. 6. ^ Rom. viii. 1. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 463 

us."^ "Now is our salYation nearer than 
when we believed."^ ''Whether we live, 
we live unto the Lord; and whether we 
die, we die unto the Lord: whether we 
live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's."^ 
"And the God of peace shall bruise Satan 
under your feet shortly."'^ Is it possible 
that those to whom such language was 
addressed could doubt their safety, or 
need anything else to give them j)erfect 
assurance? 

In the first Epistle to the Corinthians 
the same apostle sends his salutations 
"unto the church of God which is at 
Corinth, to them that are sanctified in 
Christ Jesus, called to be saints," and he 
describes them as "waiting for the coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall also 
confirm you unto the end, that ye may 
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus 
Christ."' "Of him are ye in Christ 
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wis- 

^ Rom. viii. 34. ^ Rom. xiii. 11. "' Rom. xiv. 8. 
* Rom. xvi. 20. ^ 1 Cor. i. 7, 8. 



464 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

dom, and righteousness, and sanctifica- 
tion, and redemption."^ "Know je not 
that ye are the temple of God, and that 
the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"^ 
"All things are yours; whether Paul, or 
Aj)ollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, 
or death, or things present, or things to 
come ; all are yours ; and ye are Christ's ; 
and Christ is God's." ^ "Do ye not know 
that the saints shall judge the v/orld? 
and if the world shall be judged by you, 
are ye unworthy to judge the smallest 
matters? Know ye not that we shall 
judge angels?"^ "Ye are bought with a 
price; therefore glorify God in your 
body, and in your spirit, which are 
God's." ^ "There hath no temptation 
taken you but such as is common to 
man: but God is faithful, who will not 
suffer you to be tempted above that ye 
are able; but will with the temptation 
also make a way to escape, that ye may 

1 1 Cor. i. 30. 2 X Cor. iii. 16. ^ 1 Cor. iii. 21-23. 
* 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3. M Cor. vi. 20. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 465 

be able to bear it." ^ " When we are judged, 
we are chastened of the Lord, that we 
should not be condemned with the world." ^ 
^'Now ye are the body of Christ, and 
members in particular."^ "Therefore, 
my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, 
unmovable, always abounding in the 
work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know^ 
that your labour is not in vain in the 
Lord."^ 

Turning to the Second Epistle to the 
Corinthians, we find the apostle saying, 
" Now he w^hich stablisheth us with you 
in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; 
who hath also sealed us, and given the 
earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."''^ 
" Forasmuch as ye are manifestly de- 
clared to be the epistle of Christ minis- 
tered by us, written not with ink, but 
with the Spirit of the living God."^ 
"For we know [not suppose, nor hope, 
but know] that if our earthly house of 

I 1 Cor. X. 13. 2 1 Qoj.^ ^^ 32, 3 i q^^^ ^ii. 27. 
^ 1 Cor. XV. 58. 5 2 Cor. i. 21, 22. « 2 Cor. iii. 3. 
2E 



466 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a 
building of God, an house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens."^ "All 
things are of God who hath reconciled 
us to himself by Jesus Christ."^ "For 
he hath made him to be sin for us, who 
knew no sin ; that we might be made the 
righteousness of God in him.'^^ To the 
Galatians he says, ^^Ye are all the chil- 
dren of God by faith in Christ Jesus."* 
To the Ephesians he says, " He hath 
made us accepted in the beloved : in 
whom we have redemption through his 
blood ;"^ "Now in Christ Jesus ye who 
sometimes were far off are made nigh by 
the blood of Christ.''' To the Philip- 
plans he says, "Being confident of this 
very thing, that he which hath begun a 
good work in you will perform it unto 
the day of Jesus Christ."^ To the Colos- 
sians he says, "Giving thanks unto the 



1 2 Cor. V. 1. 


2 Cor. V. 18. 


3 2 Cor. V. 21 


* Gal. iii. 26. 


5 Eph. i. 6, 7. 
^ Phii. i. 6. 


6 Eph. ii. 13. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 467 

Father, which hath made us meet to be 
partakers of the inheritance of the saints 
in light: who hath delivered us from the 
power of darkness, and hath translated 
us into the kingdom of his dear Son."^ 
^^ And ye are complete in him."^ To the 
Thessalonians he says, "Ye turned to 
God from idols to serye the living and 
true God; and to wait for his Son from 
heaven, whom he raised from the dead, 
even Jesus, which delivered us [mark the 
23ast tense] from the wrath to come."^ 
To Timothy he says, "God hath not 
given us the spirit of fear; but of power, 
and of love, and of a sound mind."^ To 
Titus he says, " Not by Avorks of right- 
eousness which we have done, but accord- 
ing to his mercy he saved us, by the 
washing of regeneration, and renewing 
of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us 
abundantly through Jesus Christ our 
Saviour; that being justified by his grace 

1 Col. i. 12, 13. 2 Col. ii. 10. 

3 1 Thess. i. 9, 10. * 2 Tim. i. 7. 



468 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

we should be made heirs according to the 
hope of eternal life/'^ To the Hebrews 
he says, "For both he that sanctifieth 
and they who are sanctified are all of 
one: for which cause he is not ashamed 
to call them brethren."^ "Christ was 
once offered to bear the sins of many; 
and unto them that look for him shall he 
appear the second time without sin unto 
salvation.'^ ^ 

Haying thus hurriedly j)assed through 
the Epistles which the Holy Ghost dic- 
tated to Paul, it only remains to glance 
at the testimony given by the other in- 
spired apostles. James says, "Every 
good gift and every perfect gift is from 
above, and cometh down from the Father 
of lights, with whom is no variableness, 
neither shadow of turning. Of his own 
will begat he us with the word of truth." ^ 
Peter, writing to the strangers scattered 
throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, 

1 Tit. iii. 5-7. 2 Heb. ii. 11. 

3 Heb. ix. 28. * James i. 17, 18. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 469 

Asia, and Bithynia, declares that they 
were ^^ elect according to the foreknow- 
ledge of God/'^ and blesses "the God 
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
which according to his abundant mercy 
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope 
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from 
the dead,"^ "whom having not seen, ye 
love; in whom, though now ye see him 
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy 
unspeakable and full of glory; receiving 
the end of your faith, even the salvation 
of your souls." ^ John writes not only 
to the fathers and the young men who 
were strong, but to " little children, be- 
cause," he says, "your sins are forgiven 
you for his name's sake;" and again, "I 
write unto you, little children, because 
ye have known the Father."'^ "Beloved, 
now we are the sons of God, and it doth 
not yet appear what we shall be ; but we 
know that when he shall appear we shall 

1 1 Pet. i. 2. 2 1 Pet i. 3. 

'' 1 Pet. i. 8, 9. * 1 John ii. 12, 13. 

40 



470 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

be like him/'^ "These things have I 
written unto you that believe on the 
name of the Son of God ; that ye may 
know that ye have eternal life.""^ "We 
know that we are of God, and the whole 
world lieth in wickedness [or the wdcked 
one]. And we know that the Son of God 
is come, and hath given us an under- 
standing, that we may know him that is 
true; and we are in him that is true, 
even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is 
the true God, and eternal life."^ Jude 
addresses "them that are sanctified by' 
God the Father, and preserved in Jesus 
Christ, and called ;"'^ and the beloved 
disciple raises an ascription of praise, in 
behalf of all his brethren, "unto him 
that loved us and washed us from our 
sins in his own blood, and hath made us 
kings and priests unto God and his 
Father."' 

It is plain from these passages that the 

1 1 John iii. 2. 2 1 John v. 13. ^ i John v. 19, 20. 
* Jude 1. ^ Kev. i. 5, 6. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 471 

Holy Ghost sent His communications to 
the early discij)les as to those who were 
already saved and who knew they were 
saved. Indeed, He manifestly designed 
to give them assurance of this fact; and 
they could obtain assurance only by be- 
lieving His word. When it is said, "The 
Spirit itself beareth witness with our 
spirit, that we are the children of God,"^ 
and, "He that belie veth on the Son of God 
hath the witness in himself,"^ we are to 
remember that the witness-bearing of the 
Holy Ghost is not apart from the word, 
but that it consists in leading the soul to 
rest with unwavering confidence upon 
the testimony of that word. When our 
Lord said to those who received Him as 
their Saviour, "Rejoice because your 
names are written in heaven,"^ and, "Fear 
not, little flock, for it is your Father's 
good pleasure to give you the kingdom,''* 
how were thej assured of salvation? 

1 Kom. viii. 16. 2 j j^^j^^ v. 10. 

3 Luke X. 20. * Luke xii. 32. 



472 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Clearly, by believing His word ; and if 
they did sincerely believe Him, tliey not 
only hoped, but they knew, that their 
names were written in heaven, and that 
they would at length reign in the king- 
dom. They could not know it in any 
other way. Suppose Christ should now 
descend from heaven in visible form and 
say the same thing to you; would you 
believe Him? Suppose He should send 
an angel to you as He did to Cornelius 
to announce the same thing; would you 
believe Him? Suppose He should write 
the same thing in a letter and convey it 
to your mind in that form; would you 
believe Him? Why not believe Him, 
then, when He says the same thing in a 
book, and says it to you no less person- 
ally and directly than He did to those 
who received Him, while He was on the 
earth, as the Son of God? 

Surely you know whether you believe 
that He lived here below, and died upon 
the cross, and arose from the grave, and 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 473 

ascended up to heaven ; and whether He 
lived, and died, and arose, and ascended, 
as the Saviour of all who believe that 
thus He put away sin ; and if you so be- 
lieve, you may know that you are a child 
of God, because it is written, " Whosoever 
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born 
of God."^ You have already confessed 
with the mouth that this Jesus is your 
Lord — or you are only waiting a suitable 
opportunity to confess Him— and you do 
sincerely believe that God raised him 
from the dead for the justification of all 
His people ; and hence you may knoio 
that you are delivered from the wrath to 
come, because it is written, '' If thou shalt 
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, 
and shalt believe in thine heart that God 
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt 
be saved." ^ You know whether you are 
trusting in Him alone for salvation, or 
whether you expect to enter heaven on 
the ground that you are good, or on the 

J 1 Jollll V. 1. 2 J|(^m X 9 

40 -^ 



474 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

ground that you have joined the church, 
or on the ground of something else you 
are doing ; and if you can truthfully say 
that your trust is in Jesus and in none 
but Jesus, you may know that you have 
passed out of death into life, because it 
is written, ^^He that believeth on me 
hath everlasting life."^ 

The question here is not whether you 
are a sinner, for it is certain that you are 
a sinner, and that you will remain a sin- 
ner as long as you live, but it is simply 
this. Do you believe that Christ is your 
Saviour ? If you do, although the flesh 
is still in you, " ye are not in the flesh, 
but in the Spirit."^ In other words, al- 
though you are a sinner, you are not a 
sinner ; and if you say this is a contradic- 
tion in terms, so it is a contradiction in 
terms to say that you are mortal and at 
the same time immortal, and yet both 
statements are strictly true. As the great 
Bacon has described the believer in one 

^ John vi. 47. ^ lluiii. viii. 9. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 475 

of his striking Christian " paradoxes and 
seeming contradictions/' " He hath with- 
in him both flesh and Spirit, yet he is not 
a double-minded man ; he is often led 
captive by the law of sin, yet it never 
gets dominion over him ; he cannot sin, 
yet can do nothing without sin." Or, to 
quote a far higher authority, " If we say 
that we have no sin, we deceive our- 
selves, and the truth is not in us;"^ but 
the same apostle says, " Whosoever is born 
of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed 
remaineth in him : and he cannot sin, be- 
cause he is born of God."^ " Purge out 
therefore the old leaven, that ye may be 
a new lump, as ye are unleavened." If 
the Christian had not leaven in him, he 
could not be told to purge it out ; and 
yet the very reason assigned for purging 
it out is that he has not leaven. The 
truth is, our " old man " is essentially 
corrupt, but our " new man " w^hicli is 
created in Christ Jesus is essentially holy ; 

1 1 John i. 8. 2 1 j^Iju iii. 9. 



476 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

and the moment we are in Him by faith 
alone, twenty things are said of our sins. 
First, they are blotted out ; ^ second, they 
are home by another ;'^ third, they are 
cast behind God's bach ; ^ fourth, they are 
cast into the depths of the sea ; ^ fifth, they 
are washed away with cleansing blood ;^ 
sixth, they are covered;^ seventh, they 
are finished ; ^ eighth, they are forgiven ; ^ 
ninth, they are not beheld;^ tenth, they 
mi^not imjjuted; ^^eleventh, they are not re- 
membered ;^^ twelfth, they diTQ pardoned ;^' 
thirteenth, they are passed away ; ^^ four- 
teenth, they are purged ; ^* fifteenth, they 
are put away j^"" sixteenth, they are re- 
mitted ; ^^ seventeenth, they are removed; ^^ 
eighteenth, they are subdued ;^^ nine- 
teenth, they are sought for and not 
fotmd ; ^^ twentieth, they are taken away. ^^ 

^ Isa. xliii. 25. ^ i p^t. ii. 24. ^ Isa. xxxviii. 17. 

* Micah vii. 19. ^ 1 John i. 7. ^ Kom. iv. 7. 

^ Dan. ix. 24. ^ Col. ii. 13. » jsiura. xxiii. 21. 

lOEom. iv. 8. ii Heb. viii. 12. ^^ Micah vii. 18. 

13 Zech. iii. 4. i^ Heb. i. 3. ''' Heb. ix. 26. 

i« 7VctR x. 43. 1^' r.^. ciii. 12. i^ ^^^..^1^ ^ii. 19. 

'9 Jcr. 1. 20. 20 Xsa. vi. 7. 



12 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 477 

The believer in Christ may know upon 
the sure testimony of God that all this is 
true as it respects both the sin of his na- 
ture and the sins of his life ; and hence 
the believer may know in the same way 
that he is saved. 

But it may be asked whether there are 
not certain evidences of conversion found 
in the Scriptures. Undoubtedly there 
are, but they are not given that we might 
derive from them the assurance of salva- 
tion. It was never intended that we 
should receive assurance by believing 
ourselves to be Christians, but by believ- 
ing that Christ is our all-sufficient Sa- 
viour. Look at any of the evidences of 
regeneration mentioned in the Bible, and 
a moment's rejlection will convince you 
that they were not designed to furnish 
assurance for which so many sad hearts 
are longing and striving. Take, for ex- 
ample, the text, " Every one that loveth 
is born of God, and knoweth God."^ 

^ 1 John iv. 7. 



478 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

This cannot give assurance, for tliere is 
not a Christian in the world whose love 
does not fall far below the measure of his 
desire and his duty. Take the text, " We 
know that we have passed from death 
unto life, because we love the brethren."^ 
This cannot give assurance, for there is 
no test to decide who are the brethren, 
and no standard to determine how fervent 
our love must be, or how far it must ex- 
tend in covering the faults of those who 
claim to be Christians. Take the text, 
'' He that keepeth his commandments 
dwelleth in him, and he in him."^ This 
cannot give assurance ; for every true 
Christian, unless deluded by Satan, will 
confess that he fails to observe them in 
many particulars; that when he would 
do good evil is present with him; and 
that " no mere man, since the fall, is able, 
in this life, perfectly to keep the com- 
mandments of God ; but doth daily break 
them, in thought, word, and deed." 

1 1 John iii. 14. ' 1 John iii. 24 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 479 

Whatever purpose, therefore, these evi- 
dences may serve, it is a self-righteous 
and fruitless task to look to them for as- 
surance. 

Still, it may be urged that we are com- 
manded to examine ourselves. But not, 
I reply, to discover whether we are 
Christians. In the first passage where 
this command is given the context plainly 
shows that the examination refers only to 
the question whether the disciples of 
Christ were pursuing a course of conduct 
unbecoming those who came to the Lord's 
table. " Let a man examine himself, and 
so let him eat of that bread, and drink 
of that cup."^ The question of i3ersonal 
salvation is not at all involved ; but thev 
were exhorted to examine their ways, and 
j)ut from them, as the dear children of 
God, detected evil; "for if we would 
judge ourselves, we should not be 
judged."^ Li the second passage we 
read, " Examine yourselves, whether ye 

1 1 Cor. xi. 28. 2 i q^^^ ^i. 31. 



480 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

be in the faith/' ^ but here again the con- 
text clearly shows that the question under 
discussion was about the apostle's right to 
exercise his high office, and not at all 
about personal salvation. "Since ye 
seek a proof of Christ speaking in me/' 
he says, " examine yourselves, whether 
ye be in the faith /' for the fact that they 
were in the faith was conclusive proof 
that Christ had owned his ministry, and 
therefore that he was not an impostor in 
claiming to be an apostle. Self-examina- 
tion as conducted in the manner and to 
attain the ends for vv^hich it is usually 
urged is the most j)ainful and j)rofitless 
exercise that can engage the soul, and I 
would confidently appeal to the experience 
of every conscientious and intelligent 
Christian to testify whether this is not 
true. If you expect to get assurance in 
this way, you might as well ex]3ect to get 
health by looking at disease, to get light 
by looking at darkness, to get life by 

1 2 Cor. xiii. 5. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 481 

looking at a corpse. Self-judgment is 
quite another thing, and daily should we 
consider our ways : not to find a ground 
of assurance, but to confess and forsake all 
that is evil as judged by the word of God. 
It may, however, occur to the reader 
that there are numerous passages in the 
Scriptures which warn us against the 
danger and deception of apostasy. Want 
of space forbids an examination of these 
passages, but without going into details, 
it is sufficient to state that Scripture can- 
not contradict itself ; and having already 
shown by the abundant testimony of the 
Holy Ghost the safety of the believer in 
Jesus, it is certain that the same Spirit 
cannot teach a directly contrary doctrine. 
Such passages, w^hich are often wrested 
from their proper meaning by those who 
are " unskilful in the word of righteous- 
n-ess,"^ are sometimes given to expose 
liyi30crites, and sometimes to put true 
Christians on their guard "against the 

1 Heb. V. 13. 

41 ?F 



482 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

wiles of the devil/' ^ but never to shake 
the confidence of the believer. " To all 
the saints in Christ Jesus which are at 
Philippi"^ (the home of the redeemed 
and rejoicing jailer) the inspired apostle 
writes, "Work out your own salvation 
with fear and trembling; for it is God 
which worketh in you both to will and 
to do of his good pleasure.''^ In other 
words, God had worked salvation in them, 
and now they were commanded to work 
it out — to work, not for salvation, but 
from salvation already received ; to work, 
not for life, but from life already be- 
stowed. And if anything can arouse us 
to ceaseless activity, to sustained enthusi- 
asm, to practical holiness, and to personal 
love in the service of our divine Master, 
it is the knowledge of the fact that 
through His pitying grace and precious 
blood He has freely, fully, and for ever 
saved us. Then we will understand the 
deep meaning of the words, 

1 Eph. vi. 11. 2 Phil. i. 1. '' Phil. ii. 12, 13. 



ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 483 

" Fm a poor sinner, and nothing at all, 
And Jesus Christ is my all in all.'' 

Then we can say, in the confidence and 
joy of a simple faith, " I know whom I 
have believed, and am persuaded that he 
is able to keep that which I have com- 
mitted unto him against that day/'^ 

" Now unto him that is able to keep 
you from falling, and to present you 
faultless before the presence of his glory, 
with exceeding joy, to the only wise God 
our Saviour, be glory and majesty, do- 
minion and power, both now and ever. 
Amen."^ 

" Can it be right for me to go 

On in this dark, uncertain way ? 
Say ' I believe,' and yet not know 
Whether my sins are put away ? 

" Not know my trespasses forgiven, 
Until I meet Him in the air ! 
Not know that I shall get to heaven 
Until I wake and find me there ! 

*' Not know my state till on my brow 

Beams the celestial diadem ! 
Why, surely all the world will know 

That I'm a pardoned sinner then. 
1 2 Tim. i. 12. 2 j^^j^ 24, 25. 



484 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

" Must clouds and darkness veil my brow 
Until I dwell with saints in light ? 
And must I walk in darkness now, 
Because I cannot walk by sight ? 

"And shall I just begin to say, 

* Father, Thine every word is true,' 
And cast my doubts and fears away. 
When all the world will own it too ? 

" Is this the way to treat the God 

Who bids me love and trust Him now ? 
Is this the way to use the word 
Given to guide me here below ? 

" How can I forth to sinners go, 

And tell of grace so rich and free. 
If all the while I do not know 

Whether that grace has smiled on me ? 

" How can it be my joy to dwell 

On the rich power of Jesus^ blood, 
If all the while I cannot tell 

That it has sealed my peace with God ? 

" How can I be like Christ below — 

How like my Lord in witness shine — 
Unless with conscious joy I know 
His Father and His God as mine ? 

" Oh, crush this cruel unbelief ; 

These needless, shameful doubts remove ; 
And suffer me no more to grieve 
The God whom I do really love." 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Abel, offering of, 103. 
Abraham, faith of, 314. 

righteousness of, 107. 
Acceptance of the believer, 162. 
Actions and belief, 59. 

principles, 58. 
Adam, children of, 204. 

in Eden, 161. 

promise to, 139, 226. 

sin of, 31, 101, 201. 
Adoption of Christians, 353. 
"Ah! dearest Lord, I cannot pray," 

425. 
Alexander invades Asia, 284. 
Antinomianism, evils of, 158, 
Antioch, Paul in, 309. 
Apostasy, warnings against, 481. 
Artaxerxes and Nehemiah, 412. 
Assurance of Faith, 427-484. 
Atonement, Christ's, 118, 223, 256. 

day of, 339. 
Attributes of God, 141. 

Baal, priests of, 419. 

Bacon, Francis, on goodness, 83. 

truth, 83. 
Baptism, Christian, 42, 120, 148, 168, 

228, 241, 259, 278, 290. 
Bathing, Greek, 422. 
Belief, actions and, 59. 

based on testimony. 432, 435. 
Confession and, 265-316. 
evidence and, 70. 
importance of, 289-296. 
prayer and, 59. 
responsibility for, 64, 62, 70. 
74, 78. 
" Belief " occurs about 500 times in 

New Testament, 290. 
Believe with the mind, 283, 284, 
285, 286. 

41 * 



Believer, acceptance of the, 162. 

Calling on the Lord, 373- 

426. 
justification of the, 164, 
knows he is saved, 438. 

Believer's Safety, 317-372. 

Believing, hopes founded on, 166. 

Bible, teachings of the, 11. 

Birth, new, 39, 191. 

Blind man cured, 300. 

Blood of Christ, 339. 

" Brightness of the Father's glory," 
275. 

Brutes, good traits of, 39. 

Cain, offering of, 103. 
Caleb, courage of, 401. 
Calling on the Lord, The Believer, 

373-426. 
" Can it be right for me to go," 483. 
Carnal mind, 199. 
Catechism, Heidelberg, 446. 

Westminster Assembly, 
447. 
Certainty of salvation, 251. 
Chalmers, Dr. T., on salvation, 375. 
Change of heart, 199. 
Character, judging by, 457. 
Christ, ascension of, 304, 307. 

atonement of, 223, 256. 

blood of, 339. 

crucifixion of, 49, 118, 238, 
291, 303, 307. 

discourses of, 290. 

divinity of, 119, 141. 

end of the law. 124, 150, 156, 
163, 220. 

eternitv of, 141. 

faith in, 20, 40, 52. 

faithfulness of, 395. 

humiliation of, 81, 119, 151. 

485 



486 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Christ, justification by, 93. 
Lazarus and, 17. 
meaning of the name, 138. 
merits of, 162. 
miracles of, 290, 291. 
Nicodemus and, 20, 37, 81. 
Omnipotence of, 393, 394. 
Omnipresence of, 143. 
Omniscience of, 143, 394. 
prayer to, 378. 
praying in the name of, 390. 
predicted by Isaiah, 243. 
rejection of, 19, 40, 52, 82, 

191. 
resurrection of, 282, 287, 308. 
sacrifice of, 222, 224, 339. 
Saviour of the Believer, 123, 

165. 
sin-bearer, 306. 
substitute for the sinner, 

219. 
theme of revelation, 52, 
titles of, 139, 298. 
weeps over Jerusalem, 17, 

48. 
worshipped, 146. 
Christianity, early, 459. 
Christians, adoption of, 353. 

sins of, 349. 
Church cannot save, 186. 
earlv, 459. 

joining the, 120, 212, 228. 
trust in the, 186. 
Circumstantial evidence, 433. 
Civil law, Hobbes on, 89. 
Condition, meaning of, 267. 
Conditions, grace with, 266. 

of salvation, 267. 
Confession, Belief and, 265-316. 
General, 177. 
Westminster, 444. 
Conscience, decisions of, 88. 

enlightened, 34, 63, 64, 

65; 182. 
slumbering, 170. 
Consciousness, knowledge based on, 

431, 434, 4.37. 
Constitution of the mind, 78. 
Conversion, evidences of, 477. 
instantaneous, 248. 
of a sailor, 416. 
Conviction of sin, 7. 
Conduct, responsibility for, 57. 
Cornelius, Peter visits, 373. 
Cication ascribed to Clirist, 144. 



Creeds, sneering at, 44. 
Criminal, condemned, 114, 137, 285. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 287, 432. 
Crucifixion. See Christ. 

David conquers Goliath, 402. 

on righteousness, 108. 
Day of atonement, 339. 

Judgment, 120, 178. 
of salvation, 250. 
Death, punishment of sin, 134. 

uncertainty of time of, 123. 
Debt, discharge of, 127. 
Debtor, release of the, 218. 
Deity, doctrine of the, 149. 
Depravity of nature, 27, 33, 80, 190, 

194, 196. 
Devil, a murderer and liar, 48. 
Disposition, natural, 38. 
Divine government, 132. 
Doctrines neglected, 44. 
Doing, hopes founded on, 166, 167, 

168, 169, 183, 189, 227, 247, 269. 
Drafted into the army, 352. 
Duty of man, 176. 

rule of, 89. 
Dying thief, how saved, 237,251, 261. 

Eden, Adam in, 31, 161. 
Ejaculatory prayer, 414. 
Elijah, temptation of, 404. 
Elisha and the widow, 398. 
Elizabeth, Queen, 265. 
End. meaning of, 124. 
End' of the Law. See Christ. 
Eunuch, Ethiopian, 242, 301. 
Episcopal Prayer-book, 177. 
Epistle to the Romans, 15, 85, 91. 
Erskine, Ralph, on regeneration, 

208. 
Eternity ascribed to Christ, 141. 
Europe, Gospel preached in, 246. 
JEve, promise to, 1.39, 226. 

sin of, 31, 101. 
Everlasting punishment, 41. 
Evidence, belief and, 70. 

circumstantial, 433. 

of the senses, 431. 434. 
Evidences of conversion, 477. 
Examination, object of self, 479. 

Faith, Assurance of, 427-484. 

' in Christ, 20, 40, 52. 
" Faith " occurs about 500 times in 
New Tcstamont, 290. 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



487 



Faith, salvation by, 268. 

What is true, 446. 

without works, 110. 
" Faith is a very simple thing," 315. 
Faitli and repentance, 257. 
Faithfulness of Christ, 395. 
Flesh, unchanged, 205. 

works of the, 195. 

General confession, 177. 
God, attributes of. 141. 

character of, 10, 41, 259. 

goodness of, 259. 

law of, 35, 90, 112, 113, 116, 

128, 155, 173, 222. 
love of, 129, 232. 
man's ignorance of, 8. 
mercy of, 117, 133, 231. 
omniscience of, 84. 
righteousness of, 91, 96. 
will of, 89, 174. 
Goliath and David, 402. 
Good works. See Doing. 
Goodness, Bacon on, 83. 
of God, 259. 
Gospel, preaching the, 163, 
Government, Divine, 132. 
Governments, human, 132. 
Grace, contrasted with the law, 214. 
man's trial under, 32. 
righteousness the gift of, 111. 
salvation by, 235. 
with conditions, 266. 
without conditions, 267. 
Gravitation, law of, 76, 132. 
Greek and English Lexicon, 86. 
Greeks, bathing of the, 422. 

Hannibal crosses the Alps, 284. 
Hearing, recovery of, 444, 
Heart, believe in thine, 265, 281, 
282, 307. 
change of, 199. 
God's judgment of the, 198. 
natural fruit of the, 29, 
Heathen, philosophers of the, 78, 
responsible for their be- 
lief, 55. 
Hebrew, " righteousness" in the, 87, 
Hebrews in the wilderness, 105. 
Hebrews, Epistle to the, 452. 
Heidelberg Catechism, 446. 
Hobbes on right and wrong, 89. 
Holy Ghost always with the be- 
liever, 353. 



Holy Ghost, convinces of sin, 9. 

dependence upon the, 

270, 
on justification, 92. 
righteousness, 108. 
works, 112, 
reproves the world, 

295. 
teachings of the, 170. 
testimony of the, 139, 
306, 344, 414, 446. 
Horsemen, the two, 231. 
Human Governments, 132. 
laws, 67, 174, 180. 
nature depraved, 27, 33, 80, 
190, 194, 196. 
Humility, false, 334, 
Hygienic laws, 132, 
Hypocrites, portion of, 167, 

" I ASKED the heavens," 25. 

" I am a great sinner," 255. 

" 1 hear the words of love," 371. 

" I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at 

all," 483. 
Ignorance of God, 8. 
sins of, 83. 
Immutability ascribed to Christ, 

142, 
Indifference to religion, 8. 
Infidelity, dreariness of, 13. 
Intellectual philosophy, 282. 
Isaiah on Christ, 243. 
Israel, release of, 335, 

Jacob wrestling, 448. 

James, Apostle, on faith and works, 

110. 
Jeremiah, temptation of, 405, 
Jerusalem,Christ weeps over, 17, 48. 
Jesus, grace of, 157, 

sacrifice of, 22, 23. 
Jews, character of the, 46, 99. 

condemnation of, 14-19. 

crucify Christ, 49. 
Job, temptation of, 404, 406. 
Joining the Church, 120, 212, 228. 
Joseph of Arimathca, 280. 
Judgment Day, 84, 120, 178. 
Julius Ccesar, assassination of, 284. 
Justice satisfied, 157, 
Justification of the believer, 92. 1 64, 

Knowledge based on testimonv, 
431, 435. 



488 



ANALYTICAL. INDEX. 



Knowledge based on the senses, 431 . 
consciousness based on, 
431, 434, 437. 

Law at Sinai, 127. 

cannot justify, 181. 

Christ the end of the, 124, 150, 

156, 163, 165, 220. 
civil, 89, 114. 
end of the, 124, 150, 156, 163, 

165, 220. 
human, 67, 114, 128, 132, 174, 

180. 
hygienic, 132. 
knows no mercy, 176. 
Levitical, 225. 
man's trial under the, 32. 
meaning of the word, 128. 
of mind, 133. 

God, 90, 112, 113, 116, 128, 

155, 173, 222. 
gravitation, 76, 132. 
the spiritual world, 76. 
physical, 74. 
preaching the, 163, 165, 228, 

240. 
requisitions of the, 214. 
righteousness of the, 173. 
rule of life, 158. 
satisfied, 157, 227. 
salvation not by the, 193. 
Lazarus, Christ and, 17. 

resurrection of, 17, 273, 
294. 
Legalism, error of, 158. 
Levitical law, 225. 
Life, spiritual, 39. 
Light, velocity of, 284. 
Lindsay on Hebrews, 452. 
Lord's Prayer, the, 387. 

Sapper, 121, 168, 254. 278. 
Love of God, 11, 232. 

to God, 129. 
Luther and the devil, 311. 

Man, duty of, 174. 

responsible for his belief, 64. 
Man's need of salvation, 7, 12. 
Man's Righteousness Cannot Save 

Him, 85-122. 
Man's Sincerity Cannot Save Him, 

43-84. 
Mary, Queen of Scots, 265. 
Mercy of God, 117, 133, 231, 
Merits of Christ, 162. 



Messiah, meaning of, 138. 
Milton, John, 284. 
Mind, believe with the, 283, 284, 
285, 286, 297, 305, 307. 
carnal, 199. 

constitution of the, 78. 
laws pertaining to, 133. 
Ministers, Christian, 171, 228, 240. 
Mouth, confess with thy, 265, 274, 

278, 279, 280. 
Moral nature, rules of the, 133. 
Morality cannot save, 122, 1.31, 136, 
167, 176, 185. 
Rousseau on, 89. 
Moses, temptation of, 403, 406. 
Mother, love of a, 24. 

Napoleon I., 311, 432. 
Nathan ael, faith of, 299. 
Nature, depraved, 27, 33, 80, 190, 
194, 196. 
meaning of, 209. 
old, unchanged, 210. 
Need of salvation, 7, 12. 
Nehemiah, prayer of, 412. 
New birth, the, 39, 255, 274, 353, 

369. 
Nicodemus and Christ, 20, 37, 81 . 
No Hope for the Sinner in the Law, 

166-213. 
Nothing Between the Sinner and 

the Saviour, 214-264. 
"Nothing, either great or small," 

263. 
Now is the day of salvation, 250. 

Old Nanny's faith, 317. 
Old Testament saints, 225. 
Omnipotence of Christ, 142, 393. 
Omnipresence of Christ, 143. 
Omniscience of Christ, 143, 394. 
God, 84. 

Paradise Lost, 284. 

Passover, the, 77, 336. 

Paul, character of, 16, 64, 99, 101. 

conversion of, 66, 308. 

on baptism, 261. 

faith and works, 110. 
the Jews, 14. 

persecutes Christians, 252. 

preaches at Antioch, 309. 
Penalty, meaning of, 217. 
Penitent, unbelieving, 421. 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



489 



Pentecost, day of, 240, 308. 
Perseverance of the Lord, 319. 

saints, 318. 
Peter, confession of, 301, 394. 

visits Cornelius, 373. 
Pharisee and The Publican, 16. 
Pharisees, character of the, 17, 47, 

99, 300. 
Philip and the Eunuch, 243. 
Philippi, jailer of, 245, 482. 
Philosophers, heathen, 79, 
Philosophy, heathen, 78. 

intellectual, 78, 282. 
Phj'sical laws, 74. 
Physician, confidence in a, 458. 
Pilate, Pontius, 83, 281. 
Poets in early history, 27. 
" Pray without ceasing," 410. 
Prayer and belief, 59. 

definition of, 382. 

efficacj' of, 391. 

ejaculatory, 414. 

Lord's. 387. 

to Christ, 378. 

wandering thoughts in, 424. 
Prayer-book, Episcopal, 177. 
Preaching the Law, 163, 228. 
Precepts of the Jews, 100. 
Priests of Baal, 419. 
Principles and actions, 58. 
Prodigal son, 215. 
Profession of religion, 229. 
Punishment everlasting, 41. 
of sin, 133. 
vicarious, 218, 224. 

Redeem, meaning of, 154. 
Regeneration, errors respecting, 
207. 
evidences of, 477. 
fruits of, 257. 
Rejection of Christ, 19, 40, 52, 82, 

191. 
Religion, indifference to, 8, 80. 

profession of, 229. 
Religious opinions, 186, 
Renan, cavils of, 2S2. 
Repentance and faith, 257. 

meaning of, 258. 
Responsibility for belief, 54, 62, 70, 
74, 78. 
conduct, 57. 
Resurrection. See Christ. 
Right and wrong, Ilobbes on, 89. 
standard of, 88. 



Righteousness Cannot Save, 85-122. 

gift of grace, 111. 

meaning of, 85. 

of God, 91, 96. 

the Law, 173. 
Robinson's Lexicon, 86. 
Romans, Epistle to the, 15, 85, 91. 
Rousseau on morality, 89. 
Russian mother, 24. 
serf, 24. 

Sacrifice of Christ, 23, 339. 
Safety, Believer's, 317-372. 
Sailor, conversion of a, 416. 
Saints, perseverance of the, 318. 
Salvation a free gift, 234. 
by faith, 268. 
grace, 235. 
conditions of, 267. 
day of, now, 250. 
instant, 262. 
need of, 7, 12. 
nigh to all, 230. 
Samaria, woman of, 299. 
Samaritans believe, 292. 
Sanctificatiou described, 365. 

errors respecting, 

205. 
growth of, 361. 
Sandals, use of, 422. 
Saul, conversion of, 308, 366. 
Saved, believer knows he is, 438. 

w^ay to be, 236. 
Saviour near the Sinner, 214-264. 
Scapegoat the, 339, 
Sceptic, fatal error of the, 13. 
Scholars, the two, 218. 
Scribes, righteousness of the, 99. 
Scriptures convince of sin, 9, 

reveal God's will, 89. 
Senses, evidence of the, 431, 434. 
Servant girl on prayer, 410. 
Sight, recovery of, 443. 
Sin, conviction of, 7. 
defined, 135, 
punishment of, 133. 
unconsciousness of, 64. 
Sin-bearer, Christ the, 306. 
Sincerity Cannot Save, 43-84. 
Sinner for life, 474. 

Saviour Near the, 214-264. 
Sins of believers, 349. 
ignorance, 83. 
pardoned, 476. 
Soul, faculties of the, 282. 



490 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Spiritual life, 39. 

Stephen, martyrdom of, 148. 

Stillingfleet on regeneration, 208. 

Strauss, cavils of, 282. 

Substitute, Christ a, 219. 

Sun, distance of the, 284. 

Sunday-schools, 447, 449. 

Teamster, converted, 253. 
Testimony, knowledge based on, 

431, 435, 437. 
Theft, punishment of, 67. 
Thief, dying, how saved, 237, 251, 

261. 
Thieves on the cross, 237. 
Thomas, confession of, 280. 

worships Christ, 147, 
Thomas, the teamster, 253. 
Tiger, nature of the, 34. 
Titles of Christ, 298. 
Tongues, gift of, 240. 
Truth, Bacon on, 83. 

organ of, 79, 82. 

Pilate and, 83. 

What is, 83. 
Types, ancient, 225, 227. 

Unbelief, effects of, 22. 

sin of, 24, 42, 57, 386. 
source of, 27. 



Unbelievers, portion of, 167. 
Unbelieving penitent, 421. 

Veracity, confidence in, 457. 
Vicarious punishment, 218, 224. 

Wandering thoughts in prayer, 

424. 
Wash, meaning of, 422. 
Washed, meaning of, 422. 
Washington, George, 288, 432. 
Webster, on " Nature," 208. 
"penalty," 217. 
" righteousness," 87, 
90. 
Westminster Assembly, Catechism 
of, 447. 
Confession, 444. 
" Whosoever believeth," 319. 
Will of God, 174. 
Woman of Samaria, 299. 
Worcester on " law," 128. 

"penalty," 217. 
Word of God, revealed, 9. 
Wordsworth on justification, 93. 
Works of the flesh, 195. 

without faith, 111. 
Wrong, test of, 88. 

Young ruler, 183. 




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